I can't get no satisfaction
And I try and I try and I try and I try
Satisfaction – Rolling Stones

Chapter 6

When they had entered the cabin, I looked at the Major again. He didn't seem startled about the events that had just transpired but he was recovering quickly enough.

He kept his face empty of emotion as he walked over to me. "You heard her. You no longer require official training but then again like she said, I want to continue training you, your obvious natural talent is intriguing and you lack a certain level of technique," I raised my eyebrows, and he backtracked. "I am not saying you lack technique but it can be worked on."

I considered what he was saying for a moment. It would be better to not feel obligated to train all the time and to meet the expectations of Maria and the other trainers. Not needing to live up to others expectations because I have already outdone them all. I could already fight better than their leader. But then I reconsidered. I could only fight one person but how long could I stand up against two, three or ten other vampires? I realised that I wasn't quite done yet and to be honest, what else was I going to do around here other than train? I wasn't prepared to go hunting anytime soon either so this was probably my best bet.

"What do you have in mind?"

Of course, like usual, what he had in mind wasn't quite what I had expected. I had expected several different things; something along the lines of more private or secluded training sessions or group training, getting me to demonstrate or have to work or try and kill several people at once.

That was not what he had me doing.

In a weird way, it was similar but then again, nothing was predictable, easy or structured as I believed.

Instead of the main barns where other people were trained, we trained around in the forests surrounding the camps. Naturally, there were at least three vampires on my tail at all times to prevent me from escaping, because lets face it, that's always the first thing on my mind.

My training mainly consisted of running around the camp in circles as fast as I could; dodging trees, rocks, boulders and other growth that got in the way. I have currently been running for hours, but every now and then I would smell a vampire and have to hunt them down and take them out. As the time flew by it became harder. More vampires would need to be taken care of and some would, very affectively, sneak up on me from behind and try to take me out.

Eventually the Major changes techniques because I found it too easy. I could sense when other vampires were around me and always managed to turn their attacks against them, using their momentum to my advantage. Like before when someone pounced out of a tree a few feet ahead of me, I used their flight to swing them around and hit them against a huge boulder, temporarily stunning them and I could easily behead them. For the sake of the army and its numbers, I haven't actually completed a kill yet.

I trained like this for days, occasionally moving to the clearing again for the technique training with Whitlock, learning how to kill several people at once. I learned a bit more about his empathy skills, it helped a lot during training because he knew how I was coping with certain tasks and whether I understood what he was saying. He never opened up once. We never had a conversation once about anything other than the next kill.

We rotated, training at night and then during the day. I spent the remainder of my time watching Charlotte and Peter train together, talking with Charlotte about our human lives or just spending time alone in my room.

As the week slowly went past, a scratch in my throat became more prominent and was starting to get uncomfortable. I knew it was thirst, but I wasn't prepared to kill another person. I don't think my body could handle the mental stress and guilt afterwards again.

As it got worse, I spent more time in my cabin looking in the mirror at my darkening eyes and clutching my throat, trying to make the pain become worse. I know the Major knew that it was bothering me but he never made any comment. If it got too out of hand I knew that Maria would soon be on my ass and threatening me and forcing me to hunt.

I spent a lot of my time thinking about when Peter mentioned vampires being able to have gifts. I decided to start distracting myself in trying to figure out if I had one and if I did find out then I would start figuring out how to control it. So far, I had nothing.

"Hey, Izzy, are you in there?" I heard Charlotte footsteps on the dirt outside before she started speaking. I hadn't seen her in about a day; her training sessions and mine prevented us having any time together which was unfortunate because I was starting to like her, a lot.

"Yeah, in here," I walked out of our tiny bathroom that I had discovered when I had a good look around the cabin. It was only a room with a basin and mirror above it. I walked into the main room that contained two useless beds and I tiny dresser with only two drawers. We settled for one each, though it seemed too obvious. We didn't have many, if any, possessions so it didn't make a huge difference. I somehow managed to still have my bag that contained a few possessions from my human life that I had taken with me when I ran away and the ruined white dress I woke up in as a vampire. I kept most of the items in the bag and placed it safely in the drawer, just in case a quick getaway was necessary.

Charlotte walked in looked a bit tired but I think that was mostly because of the dirt that covered her. Vampires couldn't get tired, we didn't sleep.

"How was training?" I asked, trying to make conversation as she walked into the bathroom I had just vacated and she began to wipe her body as clean as possible.

"It was good. Peter says I'm making some progress. I nearly took out two vampires today." She sounded pleased with herself, two vampires were impressive but she had been training for over six hours, and at least four of those hours were combat with other vampires.

"Good job." I sat down on my bed and opened my drawer in the dresser. I still had a few more hours to kill until my next scheduled training session so I decided to read. Of the two books I had collected from home, Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights, I chose to read Wuthering Heights. I had read them both but Pride and Prejudice was the freshest in my mind, so my hand passed over it as I picked up the other book.

"How has your day been?" She asked politely. She had finished cleaning her arms and was now working on her legs.

"You know the same as every other day: went for a run this morning, doing some sparring this afternoon." I replied a little bored as I lay on my bed and flicked to the first page.

"You're so lucky you're good at fighting. I saw you the other day. It's like instinct with you, maybe it's you gift!" she smiled and giggled to herself. She was clearly dismissing the fact that one of us could have a special ability. "…and you get so much free time too, not fair."

" I rolled my eyes, free time was overrated. "I have to go back to the barn in a few minutes to 'observe' other people fighting. They just want to make sure I'm not causing trouble with you in here."

That was probably true. Maria and the other girls, Major and Peter and the other trainer I didn't know the name of, were trying exceptionally hard to make sure at least one of us were busy at one point in time. They were getting good at it and it was becoming annoying.

"I'm sorry. We never get to talk anymore."

"I know, I miss you too," she sighed loudly before walking out again. "I gotta go, I'll fix the rest of this up later," she said gesturing around her still filthy body. "Catcha later!" she said before almost skipping out of our cabin.

I thought about what she said that fighting could be my gift. I recalled the events of the past few days; how I seemed to know when I was about to be attacked and exactly how to get out of their grip and use it against them. I could escape and counter every attack they had thrown at me, could it be possible it was my gift.

When the Major had first fought me in the barn, before my first feed, I only remember the pain of the thirst. Each time he came at me I didn't bother with counter moves and let him hurt me. When I decided to fight back, even with my little to no knowledge, I had managed to match his moves.

I have a power, but it is more complicated than just being good at fighting.

I moved from my bed, discarding the book on the pillow and walked over to the mirror in the bathroom. The basin was still covered in dirt so I turned and left the tap on to clear it away.

I looked at myself in the mirror. I watched in my reflection as I touched my cheek. Leaning closer I observed my eyes. They were getting darker again. Only the smallest amount of red was there and that was only if you looked at them closely. The rest of my iris was black. But it wasn't like the colour of normal eyes that some people normally get where there is a slight difference between the pupil and the iris. The colour of my eye was the same as the pupil, like it was slowly swallowing up my eye as I became thirstier. How was I going to hide that I wasn't hunting? It was so obvious.

The Major had told me a few hours previously, you have been given permission to hunt until your next training session. Use this time wisely but if I find that you haven't hunted, I will be your person escort on your expedition and I know that I am not good company to keep during these times. I didn't take his warning kindly, but I didn't know how I could possibly do it.

I let out a frustrated sigh and dawdled out of our cabin and walked slowly, but warily towards the surrounding woods. Once I was out of sight of the camp, twenty or so feet into the woods, I began jogging. I wasn't up for a run, I would get wherever I was going way too fast but walking made me feel vulnerable, so I settled for the slow pace of a jog. To humans this would still seem pretty fast but it was a speed I was prepared to settle with.

I kept going for a while but eventually angled myself a little to the right, making another circle around camp but further out. I wasn't ready to meet any humans yet.

My throat was so dry it was scratching itself and my unnecessary breaths were coming very quick and it was difficult to get much air in. I looked down to my arms as I felt them become weaker as I ran, falling limp by my sides. My legs began to slow down on their own accord, my head, despite the fact that vampires can't feel pain, was pounding and causing shudders to go through my body. My vision became weaker. At first I though that the trees began to move, their edges becoming blurry, until I realised it was me, they were blurry because of me.

My throat was so dry now, I was barely walking, I leant against a tree, and my arm wrapped around my torso, the pain threatening to turn me inside out. I pressed my back against the hard bark and slid down to the ground. My legs lay in front of me; I couldn't bring myself to lift them up to my chest. My arms were limp, hanging beside me, palms up on the ground. I don't know how long I sat there. I could barely catch a glimpse of the sun as it moved across the sky; my vision was blurry enough that everything was becoming too dark for me to see a few hundred metres in front of me, pretty poor for my heightened eyesight. I started to count the minutes in my head before even my thoughts became too tiring.

So this was what absolute thirst felt like? I thought to myself. We can't die from thirst though, what's happening to me?

Numbing sensations spread over my body the longer I sat there. My eye lids drooped closed and I slumped to the side, by body no longer able to keep me upright.

So this is the end is it? The first vampire to die of thirst. I survived so much, took a beating from an empath and came out on top. After all the effort of not dying in that alley way, this is how I go? Pathetic.

I blacked out, unable to sense anything around me. Deaf, blind with no sense of touch or smell. My body stopped breathing for me as I floated away, my head was spinning, like head rush when I was a human but ten times worse and all over my body.

Nothing, I felt nothing. Everything was like a gigantic black hole.

My neck snapped up and my body turned on again in a split second, rushing forwards clumsily through the trees, arms still swaying uselessly but my legs were moving like they found the emergency energy hidden somewhere inside me. My brain wasn't functioning either. The only thing I could actually feel was my need to run, run to catch it.

Catch what?

My brain was starting to function again I noticed, my surroundings, the few thousand trees, were becoming visible again. But the one thing that it was really telling me was…

Blood….I can smell blood.

And I could. I seemed to be taken over by the urge to satisfy my pains and weakness, and I was taken over by a force top powerful to stop.

Only as my teeth sunk into a piece of flesh did I realise that I had stopped running and started feeding. The delicious taste of blood running down my throat and I couldn't stop my moan of pleasure as the burning in my throat subsided. Whatever or whoever I was feeding from slowly drained of all blood, stopped fighting long ago and slumped to the floor in a heap.

As stood up and brushed the dirt away from my knees that I had collected from kneeling on the ground. I wiped the remaining blood from around my face, the last few drops I licked from my fingers. I went to turn away and return to the camp, when I froze from the sight in front of me. I hadn't been drinking from a human.

Lying in front of me lay some sort of animal, resembling a deer but I had mangled the body so much that I couldn't tell.

I brought my fingers to my lips and tried to get the taste back to my mouth. It tasted so similar, but there was a certain tang to it that I couldn't place, it wasn't as strong as the taste of human blood, not as satisfying, but it had quenched my thirst…for now.

How long would it last?

I began the run back to camp, I had no idea where my instincts had taken me but what I did know is that I could trace my steps back. It didn't take as long as I thought it would. I had left a pretty good trail back to camp. It seemed I had managed to touch everything in my path.

When I made it back to the camp, I headed straight to the training area. I was greeted by nearly being kicked over as a blur whizzed past me, another blur following the first. Thunder like strikes followed them, the collision of the rock hard skin of a vampire. The blurs were still circling each other and I started to concentrate on them. I noticed one of them had darker hair and the other had blonde hair, slightly longer. They were so evenly matched but I could see, even though everyone else, who had gathered around me to watch as well, couldn't see it. The blonde was gaining the upper hand, starting to move milliseconds before his opponent. Or at least it looks like a man.

"Oh man, they are so evenly matched!" I jumped out of my skin and spun around, crouching, ready to defend myself.

Charlotte walked over to me, hands in the air showing her innocence. "Well jeez, over reaction," she rolled her eyes and came and stood next to me, crossing her arms and looking over at the fight. "They have been fighting for at least an hour now! Can't they just admit that they are too evenly matched? Men!" She rolled her eyes.

"I dunno, I got a feeling this fight will end soon. Look," I pointing towards the blondes hand who was slowly getting closer to the other mans neck until suddenly,

BANG!

He went flying across the open space and into one of the cabins where the blonde stood their waiting, fangs exposed, a clear win. I then realised as the men shook hands at laughed at each other, that they were Peter and the Major. And I now knew just how good they were. It took a couple of seconds before I started freaking out. I had beaten the Major in our last fight, what the hell but I am going to have so much on my shoulders when we fight, I will be expected to kill and help the army in so many ways, I can beat Maria for crying out loud! I nearly started hyperventilating until I saw the look on Charlottes face.

She was looking at Peter, couldn't take her eyes off him, her eyes were shining and a small smile playing at her lips. I followed her gaze and realised it was Peter. She like Peter, oh this was good.

"Char, Charlotte."

"Mmmmmhmmmmm…" She hummed, not noticing my present grin.

"So, Peter huh?" I almost laughed at her face. If she could smile any bigger, it would just be border line creepy.

"Shame he got his ass kicked in that fight huh?" I smirked.

"Hey! It was almost a tie, he was holding his own well until he lost his footing." She turned to me with a frown, very defensively, but stopped when she saw that I was laughing.

"What?" She asked.

I smiled, "you like him, don't you!?"

"No," she started, then looked back at him and then to the floor, "well, maybe." She muttered quietly. I rubbed her arm, comfortingly.

"It's okay you know, I mean, it's completely awkward and complicated, "She shot me a glare, "but, who knows? It could still work out!"

"Yeah, I doubt that. Did you hear that in a few days we'll be fighting? It'll be a long shot that we both even survive and if we do then there is still no hope for us."

"You don't know that!" I spun her around to face me. "You can't believe that. Our lives have just been taken away from us, whatever afterlife or hell we are living in now, we should be the ones to live it, don't give up hope okay? You still deserve to be happy and if Peter is what makes you happy…oh crap here they come." I stopped rambling and stood up straight just as the Major and Peter walked over to us.

"What are you ladies talking about?" Peter announced himself as he met us. Major was looking at me with knowing eyes, he knew what I was just talking about.

"Nothing, can't believe you lost to him," I said, trying to lighten the tension that Major and Charlotte was sending out.

Major growled at me, I couldn't blame him, it was supposed to be an insult. Peter just laughed. "One day, I will beat you." He sent a look at his friend before turning to Charlotte. "Wanna continue where we left off?"

She looked so startled, "What!?"

"Er…training?"

"Oh right yeah," she looked down embarrassed. "Let's go, see you later Izzy."

"Bye." They walked off, Peter leading the way. Major turned to me and gave me a pointed look,

"What?"

He frowned. "What's with your eyes?"

"I dunno, I fed just now."

He frowned again. "There's something off about them." He paused and kept looking at my eyes. "Well anyway, change of plans; we won't be training until tomorrow morning, and to have everyone prepared for the battle, your will be training people as well."

This shocked me, "Me? Why?"

"Your one of the best fighters here and Maria isn't happy at the moment, mostly because of you, but if we don't win this then she is going to go on a killing spree, including the remainder of her army and the first hundred humans she crosses so…"

"Well right onto training then." I agreed, not wanting anyone else to suffer at her hands.

"See you tomorrow morning." I turned to leave but he wasn't finished. "And Izzy," I turned back to face him and what I saw surprised me, "thankyou for feeding." Before I could reply, he walked off into one of the barns.

I was shocked, I walked blankly back to our little cabin and walked into the small bathroom, clutching the basin and looking at my reflection, my expression showing my shock.

Did the Major just thank me? Did he actually let me see that he had real genuine feelings?

Okay, just a warning, I am not going to post another chapter until I get at LEAST five reviews (don't mean to sound mean here but still), hope your enjoying so far!