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Chapter 3

The First Day

 

 

Following Lena to my first class, I thought about the previous night’s dream. In it, I was standing with my back against a mossy wall, barefoot, feeling the wetness of the dew on the grass. In front of me, an angry peasant crowd yelled in an unknown language while throwing dark green rocks at me! I had felt pain in my sleep, and now its symbolism was even more irritating.

       “This is the biggest building in the compound and most things are done here. Classes and training, and the cells are here too.”

        Lena’s words pulled me from my dream. We were on a vast lower floor. We walked through a steel door and on past glass-walled rooms that seemed to be offices and were, for the most part, empty. When we arrived at a metal staircase, she stopped.

       “Through that door,” she indicated the one on my right, “are your training classes.” We continued up the stairs. I followed nervously, glancing back at the dark door.

       I thought of the horrific images of her parents’ death that were now a part of her. Forever repeating the same terror over and over. At least that’s what I would do, and, from her serious look, I knew that her pillow was probably still tear-stained at night. I’ve always hated that animal-territorial-whatever primal instinct. I’d always thought about it in the context of human wars, but apparently untamed vampires share the same brutality.    Violence is at our core; it’s the essence of our survival. No matter the millennium, it always comes down to that. However, with my whole being, I wished for something different—for people to overcome those primal instincts with their mind, with education. It couldn’t be something found in a utopian fantasy world—it had to be possible!

Lena stopped in front of another door.

“Mr. Matthews is waiting for you.”

       After she had left, I tapped on the door, realizing that I was actually entering a vampire’s den. We would be one-on-one. Oh, no. Panic overwhelmed my body just as a melodic voice bid me to come in.

Gritting my teeth, I entered.

“Sit wherever you wish, Miss Young.”

        He was leaning against the table, and, when I entered, looked up in happy anticipation. He looked to be in his early thirties, and he had a sincere-seeming smile, porcelain skin, and lively brown child-like eyes.

        “I am François Matthews and I’ll be teaching you about vampire history. The relevant parts.” His eyes smiled.

The room seemed like any other professor’s space, with a glass table, whiteboard on the wall, and a built-in bookcase that stretched floor to ceiling. Matthews himself looked like an average college professor in a tweed jacket with elbow patches—though fashionable, not old.

         I sat as far away as possible within the limits of politeness. I didn’t want to deal with another angry fangy vampire.

“Do you have any special request regarding what I should call you?”

“Nika?” I was very careful.

        “Good. Shall we start then, Nika?” He flashed me another toothy grin. No fangs, though, which was comforting. He passed a notebook and pencils to me. Right, school supplies—I forgot about that.

        “Surely you have many questions, so, why don’t we start from there.”

Yeah, a ton! Only, at that moment I felt unprepared, blank. I dug around for the first one.

“So, the daylight—” I started, but he waved me off with a chuckle.

        “We are not of the Bram Stocker mythology lines. We are a living, breathing species, a civilization of its own. We are integrated into human society, we work, pay taxes, eat . . . and fight our own daily battles,” he said, and based on his look, he didn’t seem too excited about explaining the difference between urban fantasy vampires and their own species. He waited for my next question.

“Well, I’ve been told that vampires are born not created.”

        “That is correct. There is a Book of Law, which is not as large as those law books that humans use…” He laughed at his joke. “It strictly forbids the making of a vampire out of a human. This is because of centuries and centuries of problems and wars with humans that all resulted from the existence of those creatures—Rogues, the created vampires. Their tempers were troublesome due to the specific mixture of human blood and our poison. They were extremely wild, frantic, and savage. Brutally violent. In earlier times it was thought that this was part of the makeover, the period of adjustment that happened before they evolved into the way we are. But that idea turned out to be false. Time passed and they became even more untamed and violent—so my race finds no comfort in the existence of such an un-trainable and uncontrollable wild horde.”

“Do they still exist?”

“No, they became extinct a long time ago.”

        I thought of Baldur and his bare teeth being completely untamable. The short hairs sprung up along the nape of my neck.

“Why did they exist in the first place?” I asked.

        “First out of love. Vampires are born from a relationship between a vampire man and a human woman, who may or may not give birth to a vampire child. There is one chance in three that a baby born of this union will be a vampire. So, we all have had one human parent and sometimes even human siblings. We do actually age, but at a much slower rate than humans . . . thus the love dramas. They are a huge part of our history, maybe even more so than in human history. After birth, we continue to age as a human does until we reach eighteen, and then the vampire preservation gene awakens and each of our years equals several human decades until we enter our thirties. After that, one of our years equals one of your centuries.”

I considered that timespan, overwhelmed, and wondered how old he could be.

        “Human mothers are usually happy with their vampire children; but the problem is, of course, that they age and the children stay the same. Our history is not so much based on blood like human history is—but rather, on broken hearts. Maybe you can understand why vampires used to turn their women, create them. They did it out of deep love, or because the women begged them. It was hard for women to be aware of their own decay while their spouses look as they did the first day they had met. Most of them would do anything to stop aging. The vampire would always stay with his beloved no matter her age, until her death. Often, the women themselves would chase their vampire lovers away, not wanting to be seen in their old and wrinkled state. A lot of suffering was, and probably still is, harbored in these relationships. Of course, there were—and are—those cases when the vampire was one who departed, leaving behind the hate and anger. But such betrayal is extremely rare for our race; mostly those were the deeds of Rogues.”

       I was stricken by this story. So much misery and unhappiness in the bonds between women and vampires. The fact that they stayed with the one they love, no matter what was utterly romantic—especially considering all the multiple marriages and lack of love and devotion so prevalent in modern human society. Something inside of me softened.

       “Clearly, not all vampire creations were out of love. Sometimes a young lone vampire will uncontrollably turn his victims, in his search for food. However, the majority of the turned vampires were done so by Rogues whose ethics were never anywhere near as developed as our own.”

“Because their blood was diluted by human blood.” My misanthropic response surprised me.

“Could be. That is one of many theories.”

        Mr. Matthews continued on for some time and then stopped abruptly. “I believe you have a name list for me.”

Oh, right.

        “I’m sorry. I completely forgot about that.” I took a paper from my back pocket. It was the one I had found on my night table the night before. There were only seven names on it, including parents. People that were part of my recent life, ones in my direct surroundings. And, of course, Kyle and Selene were named.

“Can I rewrite it? My schedule is on this paper.”

“Take your time,” he answered politely.

        I took a piece of paper from the notebook and rewrote the list. First I wrote the name, then the address. Afterward, I indicated the person’s role in my life, for example, Kyle Sanders—ex-boyfriend, colleague; Selene Adams—ex-friend, etc.

       Thinking of my pathetic love life, I wondered how long it took a vampire to heal his heart after the death of a wife, and how many loves they knew throughout their eternity.

“How many children do vampires usually have?”

“That depends on their age I guess, but for most the number is two or three.”

“Do you have children?” My forthrightness surprised me, but he didn’t seem to mind it.

“Times have changed.”

        And that was the answer. One that revealed nothing of the matter. That’s what you get when you stick your nose where it doesn’t belong.

He stood and walked to the bookcase. After a few seconds, he fished out a hardback and passed it to me.

“The Vampire History 101 edition specially adapted for humans.”

I assumed that was the euphemism for censorship.

       “You can read it to yourself here and discuss your questions with me, or I can teach it directly to you, chapter by chapter. The little experience I have in this matter tells me that human curiosity always wins over patience, so they choose the former.”

       “I agree. Why would you repeat the same thing that I can read from this?” I tapped the cover lightly with my fingers. It was a thin book.

       He sat, looking at me calmly. His look turned into gaze. I didn’t move and suddenly glanced at the clock on the wall. Noon!

“Oh, I’m late for my next class.”

        “Don’t worry.” He scanned my schedule on the table. “Psychology is three rooms down the hall. Same side.”

“All right. Um, thank you.” A little giddy, I collected my stuff.

“See you tomorrow.” His smile followed me to the door.

        I couldn’t lie, that class was actually okay. It reminded me of how much I missed my real classes at Berkeley. It had only been a week since I had left the dorm. And this vampire, François Matthews, was a very nice person, or at least he seemed to be. I forgot to ask him how enraged a vampire could become, in light of their apparently famous peaceful tempers. I frowned at the memory of Baldur in his office.

        I knocked twice at the door. No one answered. I gathered my courage and turned the doorknob. The room was empty. It was similar to Mr. Matthews’ office, except a slim monitor was sitting on the table instead of a person. On its face was printed the message: Welcome, Nika. I took the chair in front of it and clicked enter—more messages telling me that I would be spending that day doing personality tests, an IQ test, etc. Okay, these tests were usually fun, so I started enthusiastically. For an hour and a half I clicked through similar shapes, Fibonacci series, relational forms, this and that with letters and numbers. Then, of course, there were some inkblot images—which I’d always thought were amazingly stupid.

         Lena was outside waiting to show me to the dining room. I thought meals were served in the hall where we had eaten the night before, but she said that was only for special occasions and that everybody took meals in the building where we were, on the third floor.

“I left the catalogs in your room.”

“What catalogs?”

“Of clothes. Unless you’re planning to wear only the jeans you came in.”

I laughed. After all the stuff I’d been through, clothes were the last things on my mind.

        She left me at the entrance. Being alone cut me to the spine. The large dining hall consisted of two adjoined rooms full of four-seat tables, with huge tables of food in the middle of the space. I sort of hid myself behind a table that held the drinking glasses and gathered the courage to join all those vampires. I probably would’ve stayed put if I hadn’t been noticed. A blond porcelain doll caught my wary gaze and smiled politely. I was busted, no point in hiding anymore. I ventured forth to the buffet, filled my plate with pretty much unnecessary stuff, and stared at the food so as not to see the rest of the room. It didn’t help. Panic hit me hard and my hands started to shake. The fork on my plate was beating out the rhythm of my shivers. It was almost impossible to calm my thoughts. I looked to the exit but a group of them was standing and kind of blocking the way out. I couldn’t run. God! I’m in a room full of vampires! How could I possibly calm myself down?

       Then the worst thought hit me—where to sit? I edged toward the end of the room looking for an empty space. A lot of empty space. My eyes were desperate, my body tense. I could see some room far away, next to the windows. Clasping my little bit of relief, I focused on the floor pattern as I hurried toward the gap. I didn’t feel many eyes on me. I’d been noticed and they returned to their talks. Good. Hopefully, I was yesterday’s news.

       Passing the tables, I went through the middle of the room—as far as I could from each side. There was the sound of a spoon hitting the floor, the screeching of a chair, and a soft, “Hey.” Then a bit stronger.

“Hey, Nika.”

I slowly turned and there was Blake waving me over to his table.

“Hey,” I said.

Sitting with Blake were Tibor and Max. I collapsed into the empty chair. I was among people—humans.

“If you behave like a scared lamb, someone will eventually eat you.”

I might just have turned green.

“C’mon man, don’t freak her out any more than she already is.” Blake smiled.

“I’m Tibor, sorry about that.”

“Nika,” I replied quietly, lowering my head.

“So, how was your first day?” Max asked.

        I shrugged moving a bean to the opposite side of my plate. “Could be worse, I guess. If I’d bleated any louder, someone could’ve heard me.”

They all laughed, which wasn’t my intention. But it did ease me a bit.

“I see you didn’t pay much attention to the food,” Blake said looking at the hodgepodge on my plate.

        “Look who’s talking! His first meal here, Blake put stuff on his plate that even I couldn’t digest. And he stared around like a scared little girl. I won’t ever forget those pretty eyes.”

“It’s true. I was so grateful Tibor caught me by the food table.”

They all laughed again.

“Where are the others?” I actually meant Julia.

“Probably at the cells. Lunch lasts for two more hours.”

“Cells?” I remembered Lena mentioning them.

“Our work office, sort to speak. It’s where the Vocati are.”

“Just like that?”

        Tibor grinned. “Not really. They are heavily chained with enough silver to make all the silverware in this place.”

Baldur had mentioned silver.

“Why silver?”

        “It drains their energy. Not like they are full of life force in the first place; but still, it renders them completely powerless. It doesn’t harm them, but keeps them at a level of constant fatigue.” The suffering face from the hotel lobby popped into my mind. My fork hit the table.

“How do the Vocati look? Like they’re suffering maybe?”

They exchanged looks and Max spoke.

“I believe that each Vocati appears differently to each Inquirer.”

“Why? What does that beast that Oswald found look like?” Tibor asked.

“Like he’s in agony, or worse.” I refused to think of him as a beast.

“At what point in your life did you meet him?”

I stared at Blake in shock. I hadn’t even been thinking in that direction, not by a long shot.

“Who’s your trainer?” Tibor was unaware of my little inner drama.

“I don’t know they didn’t put it on the schedule.”

“Well, who’s your team leader? That’s your trainer.”

Something crumpled in my gut.

“So?” Tibor was waiting.

“Andrei Belun.”

They looked at me, startled, which definitely didn’t ease my discomfort.

“Well, you did meet one of the Originals, after all,” Tibor said. “Maybe that’s why he accepted.”

Max shook his head.

        “I’m not so sure, it’s probably because of the Council. Baldur wants him near and not out in the field.”

        “I don’t get that.” Blake shook his head. “I mean most of his projects, like this one, wouldn’t get the vote from Belun. And from what I’d heard, Belun’s father had differences with Baldur as well. Why would he try to keep him close?”

“Who knows? Vampire politics.” Max shrugged.

        I had no idea what they were talking about, but time was passing, making me nervous. Four o’clock: training time. Oh, no.

Tibor and Blake accompanied me down to the training area door.

        “Good luck with Belun. The story is he’s the best Warrior.” Tibor grinned and Blake nodded. They lingered, probably sensing my fear. I didn’t have any choice but to walk through the door.

        From the hallway, I could see several small rooms with glass walls. They all had empty tatami mats on the floor. At the end of the hallway, to the right, were the shower rooms and two more doors. I entered the closest one— an empty gym with a basketball court. Then through the next one—argh, too many doors for my taste—that gym was smaller and it had gymnastics equipment in one corner, as well as mats and a punching bag.

Bam! Something hit the floor.

I jumped.

        One of the mats was on the ground and Belun was standing behind it. Oh, God. My whole being went numb with fear.

“You’re late.” His voice was stern.

        I couldn’t move a muscle when he started to stride towards me. I wanted to burst headlong back through the door. He passed me and reached for a black sports bag. I had become a statue. All numb and cold.

“Change into these clothes.” He gave me the bag and I stared at him like an idiot.

“Change your clothes,” he repeated.

        Baldur’s fangs flashed before me—fangs that showed, as I recalled, as a result of irritation and annoyance. I was instantly sobered by a blinding fear.

“Where?” I could barely speak.

He turned his back.

What, here?!

“Here?”

        He didn’t reply but continued standing with his back to me. I was confused. Do I really have to undress in here? My embarrassment overtook my fear. The bag held navy blue tracksuit pants and a white t-shirt, both two sizes too big, and gym shoes.

“You done?”

“Yes.” I put my clothes on the bench.

“Come. Give me twenty squats, hands in front.” He motioned me onto the mat.

        Argh, I had never liked gym classes. This was going to be a very long two hours. Wait a minute, the schedule didn’t say when the class was supposed to finish. And of course, I didn’t have a tidbit of courage to ask him.

        When I was a child, my parents had me play various sports: gymnastics, swimming, athletics, tennis—but I wasn’t a physical child so I didn’t like them much. Luckily, my body wasn’t as lazy as it used to be.

“Now, bend as far forward as you can. Knees straight.”

At least my body was flexible.

“Five push-ups.”

I managed three with a serious arm tremor.

“Twenty sit-ups.”

I did fifteen.

“Okay. Stand up.”

        He went toward the punching bag, a frown on his face. I didn’t know if should follow him so I took only a couple of steps. He grabbed the boxing gloves and threw them at me. Of course, I dropped one. I put them on quietly.

“Take a stance and hit the bag, first with the right, then the left hand.”

        My hits were really miserable, and he clearly noticed. He demonstrated the stance and showed me how to punch—but I was pathetic.

“C’mon do it again. Again . . .  again . . .  again . . . !”

It just kept getting worse.

“Have you ever hit something?”

        I didn’t know whether the question was rhetorical or not, but I shook my head anyway. I come from a democratic part of the world, why would I want to hit something? However, I saw the irony.

“Hit it harder, and take the stance I showed you.”

It was easy for him to say—I was hitting as hard as I could but the damn bag wouldn’t move!

“Wait. I’ll show you how to kick the bag.”

        Like that was going to be any better. I was punching and kicking until I thought I was going to die. Gasping, I fell down.

“Why did you stop?”

        Unable to breathe let alone speak, I made a man-leave-me-alone-I-can’t-breathe gesture. I was all wet, my hair was plastered to my face. I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs. My heart was crashing into my ribs. I was done. My whole body was pulsing, my head from the blood, my legs, and arms from hitting. I lay down.

“Get up.”

“Can’t.”

“Get up. You won’t feel better laying around. Walk.”

I looked at him like he had to be kidding, but he just barked—“Up!”

        I got up, but I could’ve definitely used some help—which, of course, would never come, not from him. He made me walk three times around the gym while he stood next to the punching bag. I felt like a caged animal, which wasn’t far from the truth. When I felt my pulse stabilizing, he spoke.

“Tomorrow you will train in the morning and in the afternoon.” Then he left.

        I stood in the empty gym for a while, helplessly. Gathering my thoughts and my stuff, I left with an undefined feeling. No one was waiting for me outside the gym, but I managed to find the way back to my room.

I caught a glimpse of Julia on the couch as I stormed through the living room to my room, where I threw myself on the bed and started to cry. After some time, I heard knocking but didn’t answer. The door opened and Julia sat on my bed and put her hand on my back, comforting me. She was quiet while I wept. After I had calmed down a bit, she spoke.

“You know you’re not alone in this, Nika. We all went through the same.”

I knew that and it did make me feel better somehow. I propped myself on one elbow. She arranged the pillows so I could lean on them, and she moved next to me. She picked up the catalogs on the bedside table.

“Oh, I think you’ll like Lena’s choice of brands.” She grinned at me but I only looked at her.

“There’s a lot of tight jeans, just like the one you wear.”

I nodded, not thinking about the clothes.

        “And there are some awesome nightlife outfits. Hot and elegant.” I smiled when she said “hot.” She read off a bunch of brands; some I knew, but most not. Julia played around, choosing shirts and jeans and pairing them with the clothes. She kept asking my opinion, trying to lighten my mood. After a while, I felt like she had kind of succeeded.

“Thank you,” I said, looking into her soft blue eyes.

        “It’s going to get easier with each day. And if it doesn’t you can always leave. No one will keep you here against your will, hon. That’s why they give a trial month before you sign the contract.” She brushed back a strand of my hair. “If it helps, I’ve been here for four years and they’ve been nothing but fair to us. Nothing bad has happened to me or anyone else.”

“Did you spend all four years here?”

        “I did, but that’s up to your Vocati and what you have to do to get close to him. Tibor and Gustavo travel a lot. But I guess their M.O. is different. Also, they’ve been working here much longer than the rest of us.”

“So you’re stuck here. Like a voluntary prison.”

“Well, not really. I have four weeks’ vacation.”

My face clearly showed surprise.

“What, you didn’t know?”

Still confused I shook my head.

        “When you accept the contract you become an employee of Gazini, Inc., so the whole legal package comes with it—bank accounts, social security—the whole shebang. Vacation time as well.” My surprise amused her.        “You’ve really been thinking of this place as the gallows or a torture chamber, haven’t you?”

        I shrugged. I hadn’t been thinking anything except that the idea of the vacation was a nice novelty and somehow made things more bearable.

“Julia, can a couple of vampires make a baby?” The thought suddenly struck me.

“No, they are impotent.”

“So romance is always with a human?”

        “It used to be. Nowadays things have changed. They often turn to their own race for emotional support and pay some human girl to bear their children. Our women have changed as well: they’re colder than before and easily accept different arrangements. The number of vampires is drastically declining. Since they can’t reproduce enough, they easily become Vocati targets. They are becoming the victims of their own laws, so to speak.”

“What do you mean?”

        “I don’t know much, but the word around here is that Baldur’s ideas are more progressive than the other Elders.”

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Chapter 4

Blow

 

 

I had woken up two hours earlier and didn’t feel much like training. I was standing in front of him holding the sports bag, way too tired and sleepy to feel any of the usual fears.

“Why aren’t you ready?” he asked, firm and sharp. I didn’t understand what he meant.

“Or do you just like undressing in front of me?”

        Yawning, at first, I didn’t catch his words, but a second later my face was drowned in redness. Oh, God! I couldn’t control that much embarrassment, so I lowered my gaze. I felt his eyes staring at me for a couple more long seconds, then he walked away, turning his back on me, leaving me to my immoral dressing room. I’m such an idiot. I mean, really, what was I thinking? Why the hell didn’t I change in my room?! I remembered Tibor’s “lamb” comment and felt about ready to release one huge baaaaaaaa—which would definitely be more appropriate because since I’d arrived, I’d clearly forgotten how to use my brain. So much for my vast intelligence!

       But, could anyone blame me? I mean, using logic in this place? Apparently, an adjustment period was necessary.

This time he was dressed in dark sports pants.

“Warm-up jacket’s on the bench.”

“I don’t need it.”

“Yes, you do. We’re going outside.”

        If I had imagined a pleasant little stroll around the front yard, or the possibility of any pleasantries on Belun’s part, I was soon to be disappointed. . But at least rocks weren’t flying my way like they were in that hideous dream. He was silent as he ran beside me, speaking only to order me to run faster—or not to lag behind. And, yes, that was my morning glory: running through the darkness of woods. To run, run, and run some more. No one can match me in my loathing for running. I am good at sprints, but this—it was cruel. Very soon I was exhausted, but even though I was clearly suffering, he made me run more. And then some more.

        Mister “Best Warrior” babysitting someone who sucked at any and all physical activities. Oh, and based on my reactions and poor word choice, he probably thought I was mentally challenged as well. Great. Maybe that’s why he didn’t look so pissed; because, really, how pissed can you get at a handicapped person?

        Until that morning, I hadn’t realized how little daylight there was in the place. I mean, it’s not like it was dark all the time, but the sun just doesn’t cross the horizon. Mornings started late and there was only a little light that lasted until lunchtime. I quickly got used to the halls, the underground connections, and the artificial light; the same for the darkness that smoked through the windows. I could not get used to cold, however.

       It was pretty dark on the morning run, but the path through the woods was illuminated by some white light that didn’t cast any shadows. It cut through the darkness just enough for me to see the path in front of me. But I couldn’t catch sight of the sky through the trees, or the line where the wood ends and the skyline begins.

“Tell me when you’re actually ready to run.”

I frowned, a huge pain in my gut. I was running!

        Of course, the unbearable ache cut off any efforts to speed up, or at least maintain an acceptable tempo. But even though I was on the verge of both weeping and yelling, the fear hadn’t left my body.

       We came to a clearing that had some wooden training equipment and he made me exercise on each piece. At this point, I could barely breathe or move any of my limbs, let alone manage the coordination necessary for these tasks. However, the torture ended soon enough. I guess. When we finally turned around, I was so drained that I couldn’t even manage the slightest of jogs. But even walking, he made me extend my step. We were silent all the way back to the indoor training arena.

“Here at six.” And he was gone.

        Left alone, I couldn’t do anything more than lay sprawled out on the floor. Everything ached. I didn’t even have the strength to drag the mat back. For something like fifteen minutes, I couldn’t feel my body; I just felt completely hollow. The wall clock said that I had less than an hour until my Psych class, which meant that I had to hurry and shower if I wanted to eat. Yes, breakfast—I needed it after this morning’s torture.

       Julia was by the entrance of the dining room with some blond vampire guy who looked younger than she, and they were laughing. When she caught sight of me, she waved me over.

“Let me introduce you.”

The blond guy was tall and hot and he stared at me with a peculiar interest.

“Nika this is Set, my team leader.”

        Great—she was having fun with hers and I had to scrape my body off the floor with mine! Set offered his hand, and although I wasn’t thrilled to touch him, his skin was surprisingly silky smooth. No jolts slammed through my body like they did when I shook hands with my team leader. So it wasn’t like that when you touched all vampires! This hand was normal, and even pleasant in its softness.

“Nice to meet you, Nika. There’s a lot of expectations of you and your team,” he said with a grin.

“I wasn’t aware of that.”

“How could you not be? You have a big beast to tame.”

They both laughed, but I didn’t follow the joke. There was nothing fun about that.

“I’m going to eat,” I said, heading toward the huge food table.

        It felt like I was starting to be myself again; I had managed to speak with a strange vampire without shattering into pieces or making a complete idiot out of myself. I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the whole thing, but at least I wasn’t feeling like a poor little lamb anymore either. On the other hand, I might have been too exhausted to feel anything at all.

        At least I could actually concentrate on the food this time; I got a couple of waffles and a huge bowl of fruit salad. I wasn’t sure I could eat it all, but I was starving. I glanced at where Julia had been, but I saw only her team leader—staring right back at me. I was curious as to why he was so interested and wondered what kind of interest it actually was. I stared at him for some time, too—completely unselfconsciously.

Oh my God!

Eye-locked with a vampire.

        And the fear was back! I looked away immediately hoping there would be no misunderstanding, but my spine was tingling. Just what I needed: another problem with a vampire. I locked eyes with my salad bowl, and headed away as fast as I could.

        In full flee, I bumped into someone and muttered apologies without looking up. Then I saw Blake and Tibor already eating in what seemed to be their regular spot.

“May I?”

“Hey, Lamb, no need to ask.” Tibor grinned and Blake joined him.

It was nice to be near positive and polite people. Humans, preferably.

“I thought you didn’t breakfast,” Blake said.

“I do after an hour and a half of killing myself running,”

“That explains the appetite.” Tibor nodded at my salad bowl. I smiled a little.

“So, where’s the sun?” I asked

“You won’t see it until mid-January,” Blake said, and I choked.

“Lamb, it’s the Arctic Circle. You’re only a couple of miles from the North Pole.”

That actually sounded cool, if you forgot about the lack of the sun and the cold.

        “Don’t you find your way around!” Julia approached the table. “I’m sorry, I had to finish some things.” She sat next to me with a small bowl of cereal.

        “No problem.” I wondered if she had something with the blond guy. True, he looked younger, but maybe when she arrived four years ago the difference wasn’t visible. He was her team leader, they’d probably spent a lot of time together—maybe some romance had developed. Then I thought of my team leader and shivered.

“How was your training?” she asked.

“Terrible.”

        They all chuckled. I wished I could just go back to bed. Then I remembered that I hadn’t gotten through the book Mr. Matthews had given me and felt a sting of guilt. He would have to go through the chapters with me as if I were an illiterate idiot. Several tables away, I noticed Lyndon, alone. There was room for one more at our table. Had I taken her seat or something?

“Why’s Lyndon sitting alone?”

The rest of them exchanged looks.

“She’s like that sometimes,” Blake answered vaguely.

        I must have had a huge neon question mark plastered across my forehead, but they all chose to ignore it. Which probably only made it brighter. I watched Lyndon for a while. She didn’t make eye contact with anyone, just looked through the window or at her food. She wore jeans and a brown button-up shirt, and besides the fact that she was sitting alone, nothing seemed out of ordinary.

       Soon enough I had to leave the small oasis of human laughter and hurry over to Psychology class. My knocking was again futile, so I just entered. There was another “Welcome” note, giving instructions for the black helmet and weird elbow-length gloves with microchips that had been left on the desk. I put them on, as instructed, and waited to respond to images that would be played on a screen inside the helmet. At first, it wasn’t very promising; the helmet fell down to the bridge of my nose and the gloves gave my hands weird tickling sensations. It was more uncomfortable than I’d imagined.

        Then the images started. Honestly, I had expected the worst; but they began with some flowers and pets, leaving me dreading the horrors that could be coming. Each image stayed up for only a couple of milliseconds, so there were like a zillion of them—I tried to relax so the results would be more accurate. After all, that’s probably what they wanted, right? To trick the careful mind by relaxing it with nice, gentle images first. I wondered if it was the same strategy that the slick vamps used because if anyone could wait to get you, it was certainly them.

Lots of images flew by. Different eyes, looks, signs, and symbols, ordinary people in motion and then still. Some faces of porcelain dolls, different colors, weapons, and transportations. The last image thanked me for my patience, and then everything went black. I took off the equipment and took ten minutes to regain the balance between my thoughts and static view. Next came Matthews.

“I’m sorry, but today you’re going to have to review with me.”

“Tough training?” he arched his eyebrow, and I nodded.

“Let’s get started then.”

        Thankfully, he didn’t seem disappointed by my lack of enthusiasm and began to roll out the vampire/human parallel history.

        “Our world revolves around the respect of our laws and our hierarchy. At the top of the pyramid are five Elders who come from ancient times; three of them were the first amongst us. Our governing body is the Council, which is composed of the five Elders and the six noble families who are directly descended from them; at least that is how it used to be. Now that some of the families no longer exist, the Council has an even number of voters, and in the case that the votes are close, some neutral family is chosen by draft. However, the need for this is very rare, almost nonexistent.”

       So, my team leader was one of six families, that’s what Baldur meant by “our noble blood.”

       “In the spirit of history, there are three main divisions amongst us: Priests, Warriors, and the rest. The latter division is self-explanatory and covers all other professions. As time has passed, most vampires have chosen modern careers,” he made a cheerful gesture toward himself, and added,

       “However, even though times have changed, along with vampires, we do not have a deficiency of Warriors or Priests. Warriors are our protection against Vocati; Priests bear our spiritual legacy and take care of ancient books and magic.”

       “Magic?” I couldn’t imagine vampires with their longer canines running around waving magic wands. In fact, it was a grotesque mental image.

       “Yes, it is a kind of alchemy, so to speak. It comes from invoking the natural elements. Magic is not available to everyone, none of us has special powers; it’s in the ancient books. Priests learn it, taking a long time to master it—but, of course, time is on our side.” He laughed. “The basic purpose of magic is its contribution to our protection. Magic itself cannot do much, especially not in a fight, but it improves the power of the dagger or it alerts us when someone crosses a protective wall on our premises. This kind of wall is all around the compound, and a Priest knows as soon as someone undesirable traverses it. And most importantly, he knows whether the intruder is human or Vocati. Of course, there are other high-tech sensors buried in the ground and trees, but magic protection has always been handy.”

        “Are there Priests here?” I asked.

“Every large place has one for protection.”

“You mentioned daggers.”

“They are forged from silver and reinforced with magic. That is the weapon used by Warriors.”

         This surprised me. I mean, if they already had to carry blades, why something small? I’d use a katana or something.

“Any other questions?”

        I hit a brain block. Everything was unfamiliar to me and I had a ton of questions, but since I hadn’t had time to balance the known vs. unknown, it was hard to come up with one. I tumbled his words about in my mind.

“What about the Elders?” I finally asked.

        “You’ve met one of them.” His smile teased me somewhat. “Baldur. He is the youngest amongst them. Besides him, another active Elder is Kyrill.”

Then I remembered something I’d been wondering about during meals.

“I see vampires eating the same food as me; what about human blood, don’t they have to drink it?”

        “Yes, of course. We need blood for its nutritional value. If it wasn’t for that, and our sharper senses and longevity, what would make us different from humans?” he joked.

“So if humans drank blood they’d live longer?”

He found my sarcasm amusing but shook his head.

        “Unfortunately, many throughout your history have drawn that conclusion, which has brought about only more bloodshed. The human capacity for cruelty is unlimited. In the end, victims of such crimes provided no use. Conclusions were wrong. You might even say that such acts are cursed—those acts of bloodshed only produced loathing and anger within, and the perpetrators would rarely go unpunished. As far as vampires are concerned—we do need blood, but the older a vampire is, the longer he can survive without it, which is to say three or four weeks maximum. The average fast here is two weeks. We have volunteers; and we don’t drink from a person, as you might have imagined, but from glasses. One day you will notice that there are no many pale faces in the dining room; then you’ll know what they are doing.”

I didn’t find his sense of humor funny.

“Why not directly from humans?”

        “The blood comes in bags, so glasses are more convenient,” he grinned. “Plus, it is barbaric and messy the other way. Also, it is difficult to stop once you start drinking directly from a person, so a human could get killed or even turned. And of course, both things are highly forbidden.”

       “Why is hard to stop?”

       “When you drink directly from a person, you take some of their soul, their being. You see memories, feel their emotions—and all that is extremely addictive. One must have a very strong will to detach oneself.”

       “Why are your faces paler than humans? I mean it’s not like you can’t walk in the sun, is it?”

       “No, that is not the reason. We are paler for the same reason that we drink blood. You see, after age eighteen, when our preservation gene awakens, our bodies start to lack oxygen due to our longevity. That is why we need blood, and our paleness you could consider a kind of anemia.”

        The class was over.

        I returned to my room to try to rest before training. Absently flipping through the TV channels, I thought of all I’d learned in one day. Five Elders, including Baldur and the one with a strange name; so what about the remaining three? Matthews mentioned that those two were active Elders, what did it mean to be inactive—if there is such a meaning at all? And that thing with the blood, that someone can drink mine from me and see my memories—do they stay mine, or would they be stolen from me? Would they belong to me if I even survived the attack in the first place?

        The couch in my suite was comfy and I’d almost forgotten that my training clothes were all sweaty. I’d already worn them twice so it was definitely time to wash them. But what should I wear in their place? I hauled myself off the couch and forced myself to go in search of Lena on the first floor. The guard sent me in her direction and as soon as she saw me, she knew my problem.

“I thought you’d come sooner,” she said.

Ouch! Did I stink that much?

        Lena showed me the room where Inquirers leave their sports bags with their dirty clothes, and clean ones were ready to go.

        “If you have training clothes of your own, just leave them in the laundry basket in your bathroom. Someone will pick them up.”

         I thanked her and changed into identical clean navy bottoms and a white T-shirt; again, they were bigger than my size. It became clear that I would need my own gear, as she had mentioned. I hurried to the gym to find it empty. I had wandered around for a while, not knowing what to do, when Belun entered.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said, without looking at me.

“It’s after six.”

         I must admit that I was surprised by my boldness, but his lack of respect had pushed me. He didn’t react, but picked up the boxing gloves and threw them to me. The message was clear: get to work.

         The sessions of miserable hitting seemed endless. I combined punches and kicks, and still, there was no improvement.

“Stop.” Unnerved, he motioned me to come closer.

        He picked up a red kicking shield, angled it against his body, and told me to kick. He held it higher than my comfortable kicking level, so it was harder to reach and maintain my balance after the kick. I could hardly get any strength behind the kick. It was really difficult. I tried harder, and after some time, just when I thought I saw a bit of improvement, he pushed at my kick and I fell.

I stared up at him.

“Get up,” was all he said.

        I hauled myself up and started again. I kicked it high enough and managed to stay well-balanced. If I hadn’t been concentrating so hard, I would’ve grinned at this little victory. And then he did the same thing and pushed me with the kicking shield. But this time, though it was a close call, I didn’t fall.

“Punches.” He placed the shield in front of him.

That was easier than punching the bag. At least I had the satisfaction of feeling it curve under my strike.

“Faster.”

        I got into it. But when I accelerated and strengthened my punches, he pushed me again—harder—and this time I flew down on my back.

“Hey!” What was his problem?

“Don’t just lie there, get up!”

I glared up at his emotionless dark-green eyes and got up.

“Kick.”

I did, and to me, it seemed much better than the previous day.

“You hit like a girl.”

        Something about his tone. I don’t know what happened, but the anger is hidden by all the fear I’d been feeling exploded. My leg was already in motion, but I just automatically switched targets. Andrei Belun’s head, even higher than the shield, suddenly seemed so much more attractive. It happened before I could stop it. He couldn’t dispute my technique; with more strength than any of my previous kicks, my shoe smacked him on the left side of his face.

Adrenalin shot through me—that was a great feeling!

“I am a girl,” I hissed.

A second later, I realized what I had done.

Fear flooded through me. Fangs. Oh, no, there would be sharp, terrifying fangs.

I took a couple of steps back, horrified. God, what had I done?

        Belun stood watching me. The corner of his lip tilted a bit, almost in a grin. That couldn’t be possible. Why the hell would he be grinning just after I’d booted him in the face?

“Take a mat and do two sets of push-ups and sit-ups or as much as you can.”

He didn’t fly over and sink his long canines inside my neck or rip off my head.

        Grateful to still be alive, I rushed to do as I was told. Halfway through my push-ups, he left. I saw his black sports pants leaving the room and he didn’t come back. Finished, I hurried back to my room not wanting to further test my luck.

“Hey you, I’ve been waiting for you.” Julia grinned when she saw me. She looked like she had a secret.

“There’s something waiting for you in your room.”

I raised my eyebrows and opened my door.

Next to the closet were two clothes racks filled with clothes.

“I…I don’t understand.”

        “Well, I realized that you wouldn’t waste your time leafing through those catalogs so I took the liberty of ordering for you.” She leaned in the doorway, smirking.

        “Of course, I don’t expect you to like everything; but they’re your size and you probably can find something suitable until you order your own. Everything is already clean.”

I was completely in shock.

        “I don’t have words….Thank you so much….” I hugged her. “I really do need clothes, but you’re so right, I wouldn’t have bothered with the catalogs any time soon.”

“I know, honey, but then you wouldn’t have a nice dress for tomorrow night.”

“Tomorrow night?”

“A reception party, I already mentioned it to you.”

I found something in my memory that corresponded, but listened to her again.

“A formal reception to honor the capturing of Original Vocati.”

“The guests will all be vampires, I take it.”

        “Yes,” she smiled. “It’s going to be cool, trust me. Their receptions are always grand, and I’m looking forward to seeing some friends again. There will be lots more of your age group there, which will be good for you.”

        The thought of socializing with vampires of my age didn’t exactly seem like something that would be good for me. But clearly, I was making progress with my fear; just the day before I would have completely freaked out over the prospect.

        Julia left me alone to enjoy my new clothes. My God, I’d never had that many clothes at one time! And she had chosen well—I liked them all. There were six or seven pairs of skinny jeans and some pants of different colors, and some waist jackets and coats that suited me really well. A bunch of t-shirts, button-up shirts, blouses, then sports gear—just what I needed.

        I looked at my new bags, grinning. A black shoulder bag, a clutch bag—which I assumed was for the reception—and the dark purple sports bag. I loved them! They were all designer, and I remembered Julia showing them to me the night before. Oh, she was good! Now I had sports equipment that was actually my size. Along with daily clothes, there were five beautiful dresses. The red one was not exactly my style or color, but the rest I couldn’t have chosen better myself.

        There was footwear, too. Gym shoes, a pair of new black Converse, two pairs of heels, and two pairs of boots—one black with an elegant heel, the other a chestnut Ugg boot. Man, she’d got it all! And just when I thought that was it, in the bathroom I found a cosmetic bag with all the girly necessities: brushes, make-up, lotions, crèmes, perfumes, shower gels, etc. I was shocked.

I went into the common room. She was lying on the couch watching TV.

“You really thought of everything!”

“Am I a girl or am I not?” She flashed that arch of beautiful white teeth.

I sat next to her, eyeing the book on the table.

“What are you reading?”

“The Solitaire Mystery, by Jostein Gaarder. He’s a Norwegian writer. It’s interesting, you’d probably liked it.”

“I stick to the classics,” I said.

        “So did I, but there’s only so many times you can read some books. Why waste it all when there’s some great contemporary literature.”

         I couldn’t argue that but still can’t say I found much greatness in the sea of trash and kitsch.

“Was it less horrible today?” She was surprised by my smile. “What’s with the sly look?”

“After a few days of torture, I kicked Andrei Belun in the face.” My face shone with joy. I didn’t know I was capable of such evil.

“And survived,” I added.

Julia laughed, shaking her head in disbelief. “If that was what you needed….”

        I nodded, maybe a bit too eagerly, but screw it. I did need that. Exactly that. Confronting my torturer. It was the seal on my three-day bout of fear for my life, and the first time after more than a week that I had felt at least a glimmer of happiness. It was over sooner than I had hoped, but hey, it was better than nothing, right?

Later, I returned the clothes I had taken earlier that day to Lena, happy that I had my own stuff now. I heard voices near the hall but didn’t see a soul. It was peaceful and quiet. I wanted to go out and breathe some fresh air, so I got my coat and headed out.

       The view was different from that of the gym. I could see out into the forest, but the outline was wider. All quiet and calm—and cold. I felt different from two days ago, or even two months ago—my life had changed, and so had my thinking. In retrospect, I wondered if Nietzsche would have reevaluated his position on God if he had met a vampire. I hadn’t. But that didn’t stop me from meeting my own limitations, over and over. What were my fellow students doing now, my parents? What kind of story was being served up to them? I needed to find that out soon.

Someone behind me coughed politely.

I spun around, filled with fear. Set stood a couple of feet away.

“I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I spaced out. What are you doing here?”

“Taking a walk?” He grinned.

        He seemed pleasant enough, but earlier today I had felt something off about him. His eyes, deep and dark, never reflected his grin. I could easily imagine them watching some brutality unflinchingly. And now, they were watching me in the same peculiar way as they had earlier that morning.

“Mind company?”

        I did, actually, but that’s not exactly something you just blurt to a vampire, alone in the woods. So I just shrugged and moved on. Of course, my previous thoughts had been permanently interrupted; in fact, I couldn’t contemplate anything with him walking so close to me.

“So, how’re you holding up?”

“You’re the first one to ask me that.” First vampire, I thought.

He laughed. “That’s not an answer.”

“It’s a day-to-day struggle for survival, I guess.”

“Tomorrow’s a special honor.”

I didn’t answer.

“Hope you’re not going to bail because I chose my best suit.”

        We stopped, and the corner of his mouth was tilted in a crooked smile. I had always found that sexy in boys.

        “What kind of dress are you planning to wear?” he asked, getting closer. “So I’ll be able to find you easily.”

His closeness was alarming. None of the vampires had ever gotten so close!

“Nika.” There was a strong voice behind me.

Set retreated to his previous position, squaring his shoulders a little with a nonchalant bob of his head.

“Belun. I wasn’t aware this path was so busy.”

“Neither was I,” Belun answered, focusing on Set’s eyes.

Then I knew why I hadn’t recognized his voice—he had never said my name before.

“It’s late and you have training early tomorrow,” he said. I gave a tiny apologetic smile to Set and started back.

“Didn’t know that anyone was working tomorrow,” said Set.

“Now you do. Goodnight.” Belun walked directly in my path, so I had to stop and wait until he had passed before I followed.

What just happened? After a while I broke the silence.

“Why is nobody working tomorrow?”

“Free day,” Belun said, and then added. “But not for you. You need to train.”

“Instead of having my head ripped off?”

He looked confused.

“As punishment, I mean. You’ll build me up until you finally break me.”

“Punishment for what?”

I felt his gaze, even through the dim evening light. I was silent, and a little confused.

“Because of the kick, you mean?”

I nodded. “You’ll torture me until I sweat blood.”

“You lack motivation. Your technique is acceptable for a beginner, and as we saw, you have strength when well-motivated.”

This was the longest sentence he had said to me.

“That wasn’t strength. It was anger.”

“Whatever. Tomorrow at nine. Good night.”

He left me at the door of my dorm and left before I could say anything.

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