The blow sent me flying backwards. I crashed into the wall, crushing some of it and then collapsing to the dirty tiled floor with a groan as pain ripped through my back. I struggled onto my hands and knees, head spinning and world tilting. I could feel the blood sliding down my head and I swayed as I lifted myself up, shaking my head a little when the world blurred a moment. I must've hit my head harder than I thought.
The vampire stalked towards me, an Indo. Short for 'indestructible' because they almost were. The first thing were taught when fighting them, never let them get their hands on you because they are strongest creatures out there, physically speaking. And that is the first thing that happened, although I had just gone two rounds with his buddies first.
As he neared I noticed his irises were black, either in hunger or anger, I wasn't sure. Both probably.
He wasn't hurrying, moving at a human pace as he moved through the restaurant to me. He still didn't know we'd just killed his two travelling companions. "What was your name again, baby?" he asked me with a mocking tone.
If he listened, he would hear the others, then he'd realize how supremely screwed he was. A cocky smile tugged at the corners of my lips as I responded a little winded, "I'd ask for yours but when we rip your head off I don't think it'll matter much after that."
He didn't need to know I'd been hunting for him. He didn't know I was here to kill him, not the other way around.
He didn't catch on right away as he reached me, then I saw the flash of confusion, "we?"
I didn't respond because I heard the bell above the store entrance ring lightly. He paused, confusion filling his features as he turned slowly, seeing two others, men, dressed similar to me enter the building, one stayed by the door, the other stood at the other exit on the other end of the room.
He turned back to me, this time he laughed. "Playing dress up? What are you, a rock band?"
"Kill him already Mara," Jared said bored, arms crossed.
The vamp laughed again, turning to me, "oh I'm going to enjoy this, you do smell amazing."
"I know right?" he did a double take, as if I was slow and didn't realize what he was.
I was throwing him off. I don't why I screwed with them when I killed, probably because they all thought they were infallible and I liked to rub it in a little bit and mess with them mentally. I didn't wait for his response, I rushed for him, as much as I could when the world tilted a little when I got too much momentum. I jumped up, kicking off a booth seat and then wrapped my hands around his head and twisted us hard. I misjudged my landing, my foot got caught in the leg of a chair and I staggered. I threw Camdon a look when he sniggered.
The vamp wrapped his arms around me and before he could squeeze, I jumped up, kicking off the booth table and twisted my body so I faced him. I threw my arm out to catch my short sword as Jared whipped it at me and then shoved it into the Indo's chest with all my might. It didn't go in as deep as it needed to so I jumped and kicked out, sending the vampire staggering back, clutching his chest as the sword pierced his heart.
He was staring at me in shock, I spoke before he could, "yeah, yeah, no weapons can penetrate your skin, I've heard it all before."
Cam came up behind him and I watched as he brought his arm up, sword in hand and sliced his head off in one foul swoop.
The head popped off landing a few feet away, the sound echoed in my head, like glass breaking. I watched as the body started to fall forward and I stuck my arm out, pushing it sideways before it hit me. It hit the ground and Cam met my gaze, his eyes were heated and though he hadn't been fighting, he was breathing as though he had.
The Kill.
It had a strange effect on all of us.
My eyebrows went up, "he was mine."
He rolled his eyes, sheathing his sword to his back, "you have enough kills, leave some for the rest of us would you. Besides, you were playing with him."
"Which you shouldn't be doing, especially injured," Jared said with both concern and irritation.
He brought his hand up to the blood on the corner of my forehead and I backed up a step before he could actually touch me. "It's fine, just a flesh wound."
Jared scoffed, "you're swaying."
"I am?" I asked in surprise, and then realized he was right. I grabbed onto the booth wall and leaned back against it. "Now I'm not."
They shared looks, which they did often when I was acting like a smart ass. "Let's burn him and get out of here, we were expected back at the School twenty minutes ago," Jared said, nudging the body that was starting to heal, or attempt to heal, the wound in its severed neck area.
"That always freaked me out. Don't you guys think it's weird that their bodies repair themselves even though it has no head to give orders?" I asked, lifting a small box of matches out of my pocket and the small flask like container of chlordane.
"Nothing freaks me out anymore," Cam said shrugging one shoulder.
A scent less, high flammable and long burning fluid out of my left breast pocket, it left no trace and it would burn the body quickly.
I dumped the entire container over the remains and then lit the match and dropped it. I watched as the body burst into strange red and pink flames, high flames that made me step back as the heat licked at my face and arms.
They started towards the back hallway where the fire exit was. But I kept staring at him and as I watched him burn, a sensation washed over me. I stared into the fire, a fire that was quickly turning the flammable skin to ash I tried to make sense of what I was feeling. An uneasiness was filling me, which had never happened before, not once.
So why did this one vampire, more or less insignificant in comparison to all of my other targets, fill me with such a strange sense of dread and foreboding? My eyebrows furrowed, I stared into the fire as if it held the answer, and it sucked me in, like fire did, but it held no response other than to fill my senses as I focused harder.
"Mara?" I jumped, turning to stare at Jared's concerned expression, he'd come up right next to me.
Instantly, I backed away and started to where Cam was watching me. I didn't like having people close to me, touch me, not ever, as far as I knew. Jared reached me, looking like he was about to say something I didn't want to get into.
I cut him before he could utter a sound, "I'm fine." I swallowed hard, wanting to ignore the strange knot in my gut even though I had learned years ago to trust my instincts.
We got out into the employee parking lot, the world was silent around us. It was late, or early. It didn't matter, I had adjusted to the crap hours a long time ago. I climbed into the passenger seat of the black SUV waiting for us, Jared drove and Cam took the back seat.
He passed a large piece of gauze up to me and I pressed it to the wound on my forehead, biting back a flinch. Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, my head was starting to throb, along with my lower back. Every time I shifted I could feel the bruising.
Carter was pacing, like he always did when he was frustrated. He was pacing the width of the hospital wing as the nurse looked over my wounds awaiting a verdict. "Well?" he finally snapped.
The nurse looked up, exasperated, "it's been five minutes, sir."
"I need to know if she's able to complete her next assignment."
The nurse met my gaze, and I realized why she hadn't say anything right away. Everyone knew I was immature, rebellious and reckless. But I completed assignments more quickly than everyone else. Telling our commanding officer that I needed a temporary leave, however short, because of an injury was going to be a big deal. Which is exactly what she was about to do.
I was one of the School's most prized assets, being seriously injured had everyone freaked out because it made them feel vulnerable I guess. I wasn't sure why it was such a big deal, I just know it had been and I'd gotten a lot of visits from the higher ups as well as doctors prodding over a broken arm.
The last time I couldn't go on assignment because of a broken bone, the nurse had gotten fired and that was after Carter blew up yelling and shouting that she was incompetent and didn't know what she was doing. It had been pretty epic and I had felt bad for the nurse. Carter could be kind of scary sometimes and he was going to put the fear of God in this poor nurse if she said I couldn't fight.
"I'm fine," I said to her, giving her a clear look to keep her mouth shut. "A night of rest and some decent food and I'm good to go, yes?"
She gave me a relieved look, not looking up at our superior she spoke, "yes. A day or two and she should be fine. Just some bruises and cuts. Nothing an asset can't handle."
Carter's tension melted away, "good. See me in my office tomorrow, 0800 hours."
Then he was gone.
The nurse sighed, and spoke as soon as the door was firmly closed shut. "You have a severe concussion, which is what caused you become unconscious earlier. It will take about a week to pass, give or take. You need to be very careful, the smallest knock to the skull can result in brain trauma. I advise not going on assignment Mara."
I shrugged, "I'll be fine. If you say anything to Carter, he'll lose it. I know you haven't been here long," I didn't even know her name, "but you must've heard what happened to last nurse that told Carter I couldn't be in the field. And if something happens, well, my doctors will patch me up. They managed to heal my broken arm in two weeks."
She frowned, "what doctors do you have?"
"Dr. Bennett and Dr. Owen. Why?"
Her frown deepened, "how long did it take for your fracture to heal?"
"Uh, I don't know, about twelve, thirteen days, something like that," I was watching her closely. The gears in her head were turning hard.
"B-But that's impossible," she said eyebrows furrowed. "That's impossible unless you're a-."
Anger filled me. "I'm human," who the fuck was she to accuse me of being an Other. "I was tagged human. We all were. We just showed the potential to have the speed and reflexes to fight."
She backed up a step, as if I'd slapped her, "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insinuate-," I cut her off, "am I done here?"
She hesitated, "you should have one of your team keep an eye on you, wake you several times over the night. You may experience severe nausea, mental confusion, dizziness and a loss of balance. If you lose consciousness, you'll need to return for a further and more intense examination. Remember what I said, be careful, one knock to the head and you could get brain trauma."
"I'll be fine," I slid off the table, taking a breath when the world tilted. When it righted I left the hospital wing. Jared and Asher were waiting for me when I left the wing.
"Carter said you checked out, what took so long?" Asher asked me warily, both of them were looking me over for signs of a worse injury.
"It's fine. Just got a good night of sleep," I kept hearing that, 'that's impossible'. "Where is everyone?"
"Getting breakfast."
It was already going on six.
"Well, I need to crash for a bit, I'm beat. I'll see you guys in a bit, yeah?"
"Are you sure you're okay? You were out for nearly twenty minutes earlier, we had to wake you up," Asher said slowly.
I rolled my eyes, "I'm fine. Sheesh. You all act like it's a big deal. I was thrown into a wall, not over the Eiffel tower. Did you guys de-brief already?"
"Yeah, you?" Jared asked, we all turned and started down the hall, going towards the elevator.
I nodded, "Carter, verbally. Nothing special to tell, run of the mill Indo that thought he was tough shit and got beat by a sixteen year old girl."
"From what I hear, it was Camdon that cut off his head," Asher shot at me.
"I did all the work, like always."
"Yeah, right, you just like to scrap with 'em."
I sighed dreamily, "cause there so much more fun when they know there about to die."
My room was on the fourth floor, at the end of the corridor, the rest of my team was housed in the same wing. Jared accompanied to my room. I had always loved the interior and exterior of the school. It was classy. Though it was a literal school, it was like a boarding school, an expensive one with a hospital, a gun range and all the niceties a battle loving warrior could want.
My room was really basic though, I had few of my own personal items. We got a bi-weekly allowance, a pretty substantial one considering we never had to pay for food or rent or anything. But other than owning clothes, a phone and my own personal vehicle and a computer, I hadn't bought anything else. Never cared for owning stuff.
I had painted my ceiling though, it was a dark forest with a beautiful cascading water fall, the moon shining through the trees. It helped me sleep, comforted me when I woke from nightmares. To which I had many that I would never admit to.
When I woke up later on, it was late afternoon. I hadn't meant to sleep so long, but I guess the concussion put me out longer than normal. A lot of us didn't sleep much. Some of us only needed two to three hours of sleep and they were good to go. I needed about four hours. I had slept nearly ten and the reason I woke up had me scowling at the ceiling.
"Open up, bitch!" it was Delilah. Probably the most attractive female at the School, long strawberry blonde hair, petite with a heart shaped face and a slender nose, bright green eyes. Yeah, I noticed the guys checking her out a lot.
I turned and rolled out of bed, grumbling under my breath, unlocking the door and then dropped back onto bed. "What?" I asked when she frowned at me suddenly.
"You don't look so good."
"Yeah, well, I don't feel good either. Now what did you need that you had to wake me from my beauty sleep?"
Her expression became dead serious and her words had my eyes going wide in shock. "Gamma Team is gone, dead."
"What? How?" I was nearly shouting.
"They don't know, they're thinking their target got them. They were sent to L.A to take out the St. Delphi coven and never reported in. So a scout was sent to their last known location. They were all dead, I heard it was bad."
"My god, the entire team though?" I was shocked. Gamma team was comprised of six people. There have been deaths before, but never an entire team and never all at once. The last more than one person died in a team was six months ago, and that was in the span of two weeks. It was rare for any of us to die.
"Yeah. Wait, wasn't Dylan sent after the St. Delphi's?"
She nodded uneasily, "yeah, he went to L.A. and when he never returned, they found him two days later in the hotel room, his neck had been snapped."
Jesus.
I didn't know what to think. Most First Blood's were relatively easy to handle compared to other species that had an unnatural physical superiority.
"I-I don't understand, it has to be the St. Delphi's right? Who was the actual target? Why did an entire team have to go?"
It was also rare for an entire team to go at one target, unless, "they were sent to take out the whole coven?"
She nodded, "from what I heard. The original targets were the twins, Kale and Kade-mostly Kade-, rumour has it, he has a dark side and the higher-ups aren't liking the body count that's been covered up. But the Council is denying it because of their coven leader, Adam."
"Adam St. Delphi, he wants to take up the First Blood seat that opened, right?"
"Yep, they think Adam is behind the missing First Blood leader."
"The Council?"
"No, the humans, wait, maybe. But they wont prosecute one of their own. They never do."
Which is why we were trained. They weren't governing their clans like they promised. "So the First Blood leader Harken is really missing then?"
"Been going on three weeks now, handlers are dead. Not a trace of him."
"Shit," I shook my head. "So let me get this straight, Dylan was sent after the twins and they killed him in his hotel room? How did they know where to find him? Then when he turns up dead, they send Gamma after the whole coven? Aren't they worried about the back lash and are they even sure it was them?"
She shrugged, "they must have some evidence if they sent the entire team down."
"What are they going to do now?"
"Probably send another team down. My guess? Beta. I heard they already put your team on assignment. I bet you if Beta doesn't handle it right away then they'll send you guys."
Beta was pretty good. Almost as good as ours. "I don't understand something. If the St. Delphi's took out the entire Gamma team, why would they send us right away? Why didn't they send us to begin with? Were the best."
She snorted, "someone thinks highly of themselves."
"I'm serious. Think about it. Our team has the best record, why not send us?"
"You, probably," my face scrunched up, she continued, "the St. Delphi's are all over the media, with Adam running for Council and the other St. Delphi, Nathaniel being such a highly noted celebrity, they don't want this turning into a big thing."
Nathaniel was an actor, he was Tom Cruise famous. I didn't watch many movies, so I hadn't seen any of them, but I knew he was famous. Plus, the St. Delphi's ran many billion dollar companies. She had a point, I was reckless and if I was even glimpsed anywhere near him by the public it would be very bad for a group that wasn't supposed to exist. "The entire St. Delphi coven dying is going to be big news," I said after a thoughtful moment.
"Not if it's staged or something. I think that's what the Gamma team went to do, stage there death, an explosion, a hate group, something. You tend to drag it out and toy with people."
I glared at her, she held her hands up in surrender, "sorry, but it's true. You may be the School's greatest possession," my glare intensified, "but you're still a kid that has no sense of restraint. You're impulsive sweetie."
I sighed, "I know. I try not to be, but sometimes I don't even think, I just, react," I didn't know why. They tried all of the time to teach me and get me to grow out of it, simulations, training, guidance and counselling. But I always tended to act first and think later, especially when I was worked up.
"It's not your fault, you heard what Dr. Patterson said, being so heavily pressured and relied on at such a young age makes you act out."
I looked away, I heard what Patterson said. But it didn't feel right to me. I kept that to myself, because I didn't think that was it. "You're the youngest person here, the best soldier we have. You're bound to react a certain way sometimes," Delilah said gently.
I looked at her, hearing Patterson's words repeat over and over again. 'You were brought here an infant. You were raised in a hostile environment, trained to commit unspeakable acts upon creatures that were once human. You were raised with no love or true companionship, the love of a mother or father. Forced to develop a hate for those very creatures that may or may not have formed naturally. You need to be very careful because your future could be put at risk if you continue this way. Or worse, with your line of work you could lose your life to your own recklessness."
"What?" Delilah asked, looking confused.
"Nothing," I said finally, standing up and going to my dresser. "Where's Alpha?"
Alpha team was my team. Because we were the alpha dogs. There was only five of us, the smallest group, all of the groups had six members, there were eight teams. We used to have a sixth member, but he lost his life five weeks ago to a fey with an ability we hadn't known about. I'd killed him, slowly and painfully. My team never saw me the same way after that. It was one thing to drag out a fight, it was another to torture your victim, which is what I had done without even hesitating.
But thankfully, they hadn't reported me to my superiors.
"Training, like always," she said rolling her eyes and then bounced up on the bed, smiling widely. "Tell me, what's it like sparring with the hottest guys ever?"
I rolled my eyes, "there like brothers."
She sighed dreamily, "I wish we were allowed to date."
"Really? All the things you could wish for, that's it?" I was unimpressed. "Dating," I said in distaste. "Relationships are a joke. Carter told me I could have romantic relations at nineteen, but would you really want to date a human that might get killed because of you? Never being able to tell them were fighting a one-sided war?"
She frowned, "who said anything about dating a human? I can't wait to date Jared."
"We aren't to date within the School. It could cause a distraction," I pointed out, slipping on my training clothes. Shorts and a training bra.
She gasped, and I glanced back at her, "What?" she was staring at my back.
"What the hell happened?"
"Oh, that, an Indo threw me into a wall last night. No biggie. I feel fine." My back did anyway, my head was throbbing again. "Let's go spar. I have some energy to burn."
"You just want to kick my ass."
"Maybe."