Hunter Trials (The Vampire Legacy Book 2)

by Rita Stradling

  “No.” I continued to lay there, catching my breath as he stared down at me. “But I have a feeling that if I get up, you’re going to attack me again.”

  His foot nudged my side. “I can attack you much better when you’re on the ground. Do you want me to demonstrate?”

  Groaning, I sat up and climbed to my feet, only to have Sebastian hook his leg around mine and shove me to the floor. My head smacked into the mat, giving me an instant headache as the gray room grew bleary.

  “You should have been ready for that. You said yourself that you anticipated my attack.”

  “And, you’re a sadistic asshat.”

  “That would imply that I was deriving some sort of enjoyment out of watching you flop around on the floor. Trust me; nothing is further from the truth.” His tone was nearly flat as if he couldn’t be more bored. His toe tapped my side again, and I knew it was a warning. If I kept lying on the floor after he knocked me on my ass, he really was going to kick me while I was down.

  I jumped up and moved out of his reach as quickly as I could, but he was right on me. My heart raced as he grabbed for my shoulders again, and without thinking, I brought up my knee and went for his balls. My knee made it halfway up to his tender bits when he hooked me behind the leg again and shoved. This time, I was completely unprepared and smacked down on my side.

  “What is the point of this?” I asked through a wince.

  Sebastian crouched down next to me, and I went for his balls again, this time with my fist, when he grabbed my arm between his legs and pivoted until my elbow threatened to bend the wrong way. I sucked in a breath as pain seared at my joint. I smacked his leg. “I tap out.”

  He didn’t break my bones, but he continued to clamp my arm between his knees, keeping it just at the point of hot searing pain. Calmly, he said, “I have other sensitive areas on my body. Maybe aim for them next time instead of continuously going for the same target.”

  “Point taken. Let up,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “See, now I’m deriving a little satisfaction from your pain. At least you finally stopped trying to be funny.”

  The moment he released my arm, I punched out for his chin, but Sebastian effortlessly deflected with his wrist and pushed my arm out of the way while standing.

  “Get up. It’s time for you to feed. And I’d like to get some monitors on you for the next test.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Every muscle in my body felt as if it was hardening under my skin as I stumbled down the fifth-floor hallway. I trudged in, my back bent and eyes half-lidded. The odor of my sweaty clothes was making my nose itch, and I pretty much felt like a creature that just crawled out of a swamp.

  A small group of students emerged from their rooms just as I was shuffling away from the elevator. The guys wore artfully torn up jeans and collared shirts. I recognized the only girl in their party as the same rude redhead from earlier. She wore a white, short, form-fitting dress with a daring neckline that brought out the many freckles on her skin.

  The tallest of the three guys smirked my way and headed straight for me. His shirt was unbuttoned halfway down his chest, showing his muscles below. He was lean with long hair that had been highlighted by the sun or a very good salon. He looked a little like an eighties glam-metal-band star. His long locks fell over his shoulders in loose waves. A smile perched on his lips as he walked straight for me, not moving aside, clearly trying to play chicken with me in the hall.

  When he was only a foot away from me, I said, “I just spent two hours getting my ass kicked. I’m sweaty and stinky and tired, and I’m not going to plaster myself against this wall to let you pass. If you don’t move aside, I will smear my rank-ass body odor all over your front, and you might never get that out of your designer shirt.”

  The guy held up his hands, and a slight smile peeked up the corner of his lips. “You win. I’ll move aside.”

  “She does stink,” Redhead said while holding her nose as she passed.

  “Hey, stinky,” the guy called as the group stopped before the elevator. He combed his hair back with his fingers and scooped it to the back of his head. “Wanna wash up and come out with us?”

  “Are you kidding right now?” Redhead asked. “Why are you inviting randoms to my friends’ parties? You’re lucky I even invited you idiots.”

  The two other guys smirked over their shoulders before turning back to the elevator.

  “She’s not random. She’s our neighbor. What’s your name, stinky?”

  “Not sure that I answer to stinky, but my name is January.”

  “Well, I’m Mark, and this is Amber, Chucky, and Trent, and you can come to this frat party nonsense if you want.”

  “Really, Mark? Because last I heard, I’m the only one invited to this party. So, you might want to ask my permission? Yeah?” The Amber chick pressed the screen of her phone and lifted it to her ear. “Are you ready yet? Because I’m not waiting for you.”

  The Mark guy raised his hands in a pleading motion and mouthed, “Save me.”

  “Sorry.” I turned away, feeling perplexed on how uneventful that encounter was. Mark tested me, but he gave way instead of crossing the line. Amber was awful, but I got the feeling that wasn’t something that was specifically directed at me. All in all, it was a pleasantly forgettable first encounter with the dreaded fifth-floor Elites.

  As I slid the key into my lock, Mitch’s door again opened behind me. Not turning around, I shot my middle finger back over my shoulder, only to hear a low, familiar chuckle from behind me.

  I spun.

  Justin stood framed in Mitch’s doorway with a smirk on his full lips. “I see my cousin has already managed to make you hate him.”

  “I didn’t do shit,” I heard from somewhere in the apartment.

  I leaped and launched myself at Justin. He caught me, taking one step back for balance and grabbing me around the thighs. I wrapped my arms and legs around the guy and kissed him. I could give a fuck who was watching us. Butterflies were dancing around my stomach, and my heart was doing somersaults.

  When I broke away, Justin was grinning, and his eyes held a sweet warmth. “I thought you were going to tell me to fuck off the moment you saw me.”

  “Then you were definitely confused.” I pressed my lips to his soft mouth again. “How did you even get up here?”

  “Me. You’re fucking welcome,” Mitch called from his room.

  Justin walked me across the hallway, pushed my door open, grabbed my keys, and kicked it closed behind him. Allowing my keys to clang on the floor, he turned around and pressed me into the wall. The world fell away for a few precious moments while his lips glided over mine.

  My fingers combed through his short hair, and he pressed up against my length. He kissed me until I was breathless and gasping for air, and then he pulled me under again. Eventually, he broke away and examined my face. “What have you been up to? You are rather pungent.”

  I laughed. “Oh, gross. I forgot for a minute. Your awful cousin wants to basically run tests on me like a lab rat while continuously humiliating me. And yes, that would be every single day. He’s calling it an internship, but he made it abundantly clear that he considers me more like an investment than a human.”

  Justin’s expression grew graver every moment I spoke. “How often do you have to go to this internship?”

  “Three hours daily.”

  “Fuck.” He leaned in and laid his head on my shoulder as he squished me to the door.

  “What? How bad is that?” I asked as I wiggled until he set me down. Cupping his cheeks, I leaned in, trying to catch his gaze. “Justin, please talk to me. You up and vanish for a week, and now you’re clearly freaked out by something. What’s going on?”

  His golden eyes finally met mine. “Can we talk about it later?”

  “No.” I threw back my head, thumping it into the wall. “No more evasiveness. We just got past this. You can talk to me now.”

  “Please, not right
now.” He kissed my neck, feather-soft. “You taste like sweat,” he whispered against my skin before deepening the kiss. Tingles spread down my neck, settling low in my belly, and my toes curled in my sneakers.

  “Are you giving me a hickey?” I asked through a laugh.

  He pulled away, and where the worry had been shadowing his gaze before, his eyes now sparked with interest. “Do you want me to give you a hickey?”

  “On the night before orientation day?” I asked. It felt like such a naughty thing to do, and yet I was very tempted.

  When I didn’t answer, he said, “I could give you one where no one would see it. And then you could give me one of yours, but those always disappear too fast.”

  The bubbly happiness in my belly drained away at his words, and I rolled my eyes up to the ceiling. “About that ... your stupid cousin is keeping track of exactly how much blood I drink and now says that I can’t drink outside blood anymore.”

  “How would he know?” Justin lifted his brows. He tilted his head, showing me the smooth skin of his neck.

  “I guess he wouldn’t.” I leaned in and ran my tongue from Justin’s collarbone up the length of his neck, making him shiver. He tasted sweet and smelled like soap. Going to my tiptoes, I whispered into his ear, “I should probably shower if you’re going to give me a hickey in a place my uniform will cover tomorrow. Will you meet me on my bed?”

  “I guess I have to let you go.” He leaned away enough to give me one more kiss before stepping back and kicking off his sneakers. As I headed into the shower, I heard the smack of Justin flopping onto my bed. Obviously, he didn’t need any more encouragement.

  Fifteen minutes later, I smelled like fancy soaps, and my wet curls were wrapped in a towel. I climbed up beside Justin as he lay, propping his head up in his hands.

  Laying my head on his chest, I asked the question that had been bothering me for a few hours now. “Did you take up the internship again to protect me? Because they’re going to keep me here and guard me no matter what.”

  He stretched his arm to my back, and I lifted my head onto his shoulder. Pulling me in closer to him, he grinned down. “You’re always presuming you’re the center of everything.”

  “Shut up.” I smacked his chest lightly. “It just would be an awfully big coincidence if you happened to choose to go back on the day that they discovered me. And from the little I know of the Hawthorn Group, it’s not a big leap to guess that they’d spread their blackmail as far as it would reach.”

  “Well, this time you can’t take the blame.” He stretched back, looking like he was getting comfortable. “I asked them for my old internship back.”

  “You did?”

  “Yes. So, you can put all that guilt away. This isn’t about you.”

  “Then what is it about?”

  He squinted an eye at me and then smiled and closed his eyes. “I’m so tired.”

  “And I’m so frustrated. I haven’t seen you in a week, and I get zero answers from you.”

  Before I finished my statement, Justin was pretending to snore. I would get shit-all from this boy. Eventually, I relaxed against him, pulling the soft new quilt over us. “Are we going to get in trouble if they catch you here?”

  “Definitely. But thankfully, Mitch owes me about fifty favors, so I’m calling them in whenever I can.” By the end of his speech, his words were slurring. “I bought you a phone,” he said through a yawn. “I made it so you can’t block me, too.”

  “That’s not even possible,” I whispered. “Are you going to sleep?”

  He just made a mumbling sound and curled his hand around my hip.

  “What about my hickey?”

  Justin’s eyes spread open, and he gave me a lazy, sexy smile. “Are you planning on wearing pants or shorts to orientation?”

  Heat licked through my belly, and I bit my lip. “Definitely shorts.”

  “Really?” He chuckled and crawled down my body.

  ****

  I woke up to the sound of my blaring alarm what felt like moments after Justin and I passed out. My whole body screamed in pain as I rolled over, only to find my bed empty. Groaning, I crawled out of bed and toward the kitchen. On the table, three full cups of water sat next to a bottle of pain killers and a brand-new phone.

  “Shit.” I plucked up the phone and crashed back down on my butt. It was a fancy new black and silver smartphone with a large screen and a sticky note on the front with a code. When I typed it into the lock screen, there was already a text in my notifications.

  Justin: Text me when you wake up.

  Even my finger muscles ached as I texted back.

  Me: I feel like death.

  Justin responded right away.

  Justin: Drink the water. Take the painkillers. You’ll feel better.

  Me: You’re bossy.

  After a moment, he sent another text.

  Justin: did my hickey show up?

  I ran my fingers up my leg, pulling my sleep shorts up. Sure as Christmas, a little red hickey decorated my inner thigh.

  A memory of Justin tugging up the material of my sleep shorts and running his lips up my inner thigh filled my mind, and a pulse of longing thrummed through me. If his mouth had started to move higher, I would have probably cheered, but Justin had flopped back up beside me, wrapped me in his arms, and passed out.

  I decided to tease him, so I texted.

  Me: The hickey didn’t show up. You must not have sucked hard enough.

  Justin: You don’t need to lie; you just need to ask.

  I laughed, but my mirth cut off in a wince as all of my abdominal muscles revolted and tried to stab me to death. Carefully, I drank down all of the glasses of water and took the pills. And, when my stomach churned, I pulled myself to my feet and stumbled into the kitchen.

  The clock read five after eight as I scarfed down a breakfast of oatmeal and fresh fruit and three spoonfuls of peanut butter licked off three different spoons. When I could force myself to put the peanut butter jar away, I shot off another text.

  Me: what happens at orientation?

  Justin: they have you swear binding oaths to take Blackburn’s secrets to the grave. Then they reveal to you that vampires really exist and indoctrinate you as much as possible.

  Me: what would they do if I skipped it?

  Justin: only one way to find out.

  A few seconds later, he told me that he had to go and that he’d text again when he was free. He didn’t specify if that was going to be in the afternoon or next week. As tomorrow was the first day of school, I was hoping that it was sooner rather than later. I used the next hour to call my nana, ascertaining that both she and Bailey were fine. Henry planned to take Bailey over to the kennels in the afternoon, and I could pick her up then.

  Dressing in a brand-new pair of jean shorts and an Academy t-shirt, I made my way out of Gregory Hall. Students streamed out all around me, heading in toward the gothic academy across the grassy field, and I followed. Most were bright-eyed and young-looking, freshman probably. They huddled in groups and raced off toward the school, running to take their oaths of silence.

  I saw the true implications of what those oaths meant when Justin tried to reveal to me the danger that was stalking us. He lost his ability to breathe, suffocating, and there had been nothing I could do to save him. Only his butler Henry was able to revive him, doing something that I was pretty sure was magic.

  Three feet from the door, I decided that I would not be taking any oaths. As everyone entered the big wooden doors to the school, I veered left, walking along the school’s outer wall.

  A breeze rushed by, and then suddenly, my least favorite person in school was standing just beside me.

  “Fuck,” I said, jumping back and smacking into the exterior wall of the school.

  “Sorry, teenage dirtbag, but you’re going the wrong way, and my brother tasked me with the amazing duty of making sure you go to this orientation meeting.”

  I glared up into Mitch’s
all too handsome face. “Except I’m not going anywhere with you, asshole.”

  His eyelids widened. “The venom. Are you always this salty? Is that why my cousin has his dick in a vice?”

  “Nah, Mitch, I’ll be saving an extra dose of venom for you.”

  His gaze slid back and forth. “Is this about the stupid dog shit?”

  I just crossed my arms over my chest and glared.

  “Did I kick your dog? No. I probably wasn’t even going to. Look.” He rubbed up and down his face, reminding me of Justin, and that bugged the hell out of me. “The last thing I want to be doing is playing shepherd for my cousin’s piece all over the school, but neither one of us has a choice. I did you a solid last night; how about you put the bitch act aside for a couple of hours, and then we can go our separate ways.”

  There was so much wrong with that statement, but I didn’t care enough about Mitch Holter to bother correcting him.

  “I’m not swearing any oaths of secrecy.” I shook my head. “I saw what happened when someone revealed a secret, and I already know what goes bump in the night.”

  “You’re going in there. Actually, I’ll just carry you in.”

  I pointed into his face. “Don’t you dare.”

  Mitch’s arms went around me, and he scooped me off my feet in a sudden, crushing bear hug. The scent of old beer and sour breath enveloped me for a second. But, before I could even struggle, a flurry of wind whistled by me, and my stomach flipped end over end. The world blurred, and it felt like we were falling when my feet hit the floor.

  I stumbled back, but strong hands gripped my shoulders and kept me vertical. Acid shot up my throat. I retched and only just managed to choke it down. Obviously, my near throwing up finally got Mitch to back up because he released me. Tears streamed from my eyes, and I just managed to blink past them to glare up at Mitch Holter.

  “What did you just do?”