~x~Chapter 63~x~

I just stared at him, heart pounding.

For a moment, I even forgot to breathe. But then my lungs started to burn from the lack of oxygen and I hastily turned away from him to gather my wits and took a deep breath. "It looks like they're finally about finished with the running." I commented as I stood up.

It was a good thing that everyone was just about done. It gave me a good excuse to break away from those darn blue eyes of his that seemed to be able to see through anyone's heart. I wasn't used to having someone look at me like that and whenever he did I didn't know what to do. I just didn't have the mental defence against him. It was worse when he did it on purpose just to make me flustered.

"Everyone, pair up with someone you've never paired up with before." Joe commanded. "And you five are not allowed to pair up either," he added, gesturing at the royal quartet and me.

The five of us glanced at one another and sighed. I looked around as people began to get into pairs and my eyes caught Christian's. It had been a couple of days since we had our extra training sessions together and I sent him a questioning smile. He simply made his way towards me and by way of invitation he sent a fist whirling my way. I manoeuvred myself so that I stepped slightly to the side, brushed my hand against his arm following the movement, and with the other hand firmly grasped his wrist. Grabbing onto his arm firmly I flipped him and he landed on his back with a thud.

"Looks like you've got a bit more to catch up on, buddy." I whispered cheekily as he sent me a shocked glance.

"How did you do that?" he grumbled as he picked himself up. "I didn't even feel you grab me, it happened so fast."

"Practice. You can do it too, I've seen you do it in training. You've just got to do it often enough to do it that quickly. There's not really a trick to it." I explained.

"Somehow, you make every move look so much better than when we try it."

"It all comes with practice. I wasn't born knowing how to do all this, you know." I commented wryly.

"That sounds fair," he agreed.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, but you're smart enough to know whose family runs this place so how come you and O'Connor were late to get here?"

"Nick's dad is here and he wanted to see us briefly before practice. He knows all about what happened at the Academy recently and he'd already scolded Nick a fair number of times over the phone since then."

"He wanted to reprimand him in person?"

"Something like that." Christian sighed.

"I remember you saying something about O'Connor being a product of his environment. But it makes no sense to me why his dad wants him to be so high up in the social hierarchy… I mean, he's Moroi and all but he's not a royal."

"I'm not really certain about it myself either. But apparently his dad thinks otherwise."

"His dad's delusional?"

"I don't think that's quite the word to use. More like he has really high expectations for his son."

"It still doesn't make that much sense to me, Christian."

"Trust me, you're not the only one. It doesn't make all that much sense to me either. It never has but there's nothing we can do about it. That's just the way his dad is."

He grunted as he lost his balance on the uneven grounding just as I knocked his shoulder. He fell to the sand yet again with a loud thud and I smiled apologetically at him.

"I think I know why they decided to make us do this," he grumbled as I gave him a hand up.

"There's a good enough sand pit back at the Academy but the beach here is still different. The sand is much deeper and of a different consistency to the pit." I agreed.

As we trained, I couldn't help but feel as though someone was observing us from afar. Rather, it was a gaze that seemed to be focused on me. At every chance I got, I glanced back to the woods and the main building of the resort to try and see if I could work out where the gaze was coming from but there were simply too many rooms in that building so it was impossible.

Around an hour later, the guardians blew a whistle calling for us to stop and most novices almost instantly dropped onto their backs in fatigue. We had another hour and a half before dinner and the mere thought of the food that was going to be served almost had me drooling. I told the girls to head on back without me and for them to take a shower first. They took the longest so I thought to let them go first and I'd wait a little.

Joe and Crispin spotted me staying back and approached me with curious expressions on their faces. Before giving them much time to react, I simply dove at Joe and decked him. Crispin reacted almost instantly, knocking me away with a startled expression before his usual training face came on when he realised what I was doing.

"Let's see how much difference this sand makes to our training, shall we?" I suggested with a grin.

"You could've at least said that before you threw me down." Joe complained as he lunged at me.

Because of the uneven grounding, it was harder to move at my usual speed and I almost couldn't dodge him in time. Making up for the delayed reaction, I decided to use our proximity to my advantage and slammed my shoulder against his side to topple him off balance. It was a move that was embedded into my mind from learning martial arts. It had become so natural to me that I usually didn't even need to think about it. But with the new grounding, I had to come up with different ways of counteracting their moves.

Crispin's next attack sent me tumbling backwards onto my back. Before Joe could land a hit on me, I rolled until I reached enough momentum to naturally roll onto my feet and observed the two of them as their circled me. As I watched their movements, I also made sure to scan the area to make sure that there were no one else around.

"There's something weird about this place." I told them bluntly and both of them stopped moving instantly. No doubt they hadn't expected me to say something like that at all. "Don't stop moving, someone's still watching us."

The two of them turned wary and continued circling. Crispin was the first to come out of the stupor and threw an attack at me which I easily blocked.

"This place is safe, Val. There are more than just us Academy guardians here protecting this place."

"I don't mean Strigoi. That's not the kind of weird I'm talking about." I told them. "I've noticed it since we arrived. I reckon a part of me might just be paranoid but there's something about the woods that kind of makes me feel really uneasy. Not to mention, someone's been watching me since the training started."

"Maybe it's just one of the guests who caught wind of the new prodigy of the academy being here and wanted to have a look for themselves?" Joe suggested as he tried to swipe at my legs.

"Maybe. I know what I'm saying sounds pretty ridiculous but I just know that something doesn't feel quite right."

"On a grand scale or a little one?"

"One that shouldn't affect that many people." I told them. "I'm not making much sense, am I?"

"Not much." Crispin nodded. "But you have lived outside of the Academy's protection for so many years. I think your sense of danger is probably still very high tuned for whenever you're outside of the Academy."

"So you think I should just stop thinking about it?"

"It'll make your stay here a little more relaxed, little sky. I know we've set you guys some exercises but this trip is fundamentally meant to be relaxing. It's meant to be a small gift for you students before things kick up a level next year."

I gave a reluctant nod in agreement and decided to put my thoughts to one side for now. I was fairly certain that if anything bad were to happen we'd be protected. This was a holiday. I chanted that to myself several times just for reiteration.

"So this is meant to be chilled despite the training." I reiterated.

"Yes, Val." Crispin stated.

"Alright, I'll try to calm down." I promised. "But I can't promise anything if I feel it get worse."

"Just don't be reckless." Joe warned. "I don't want you being reckless, little sky, especially since this is unfamiliar territory for you."

"I don't promise anything." I said again. "You know I can't. I don't make promises unless I know for certain that I can keep it."

"Then can you at least promise to give us a heads up if you're about to do something we won't approve of."

"I promise to try. That's all I can do."

"That's what we'll have to settle for I suppose." Joe sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"You should probably head back and have a shower otherwise you're going to miss dinner."

"There's been something planned tonight so you better eat. I don't even want to imagine how scary you might be if you miss dinner."

"Hey, I probably won't be that bad." They both shot me an unconvinced stare and I shrank a little. "Okay… so I might be a bit more of the 'shoot first ask questions later' attitude…"

Crispin chuckled and ruffled my already messy hair. "We've already seen you angry a couple of times, I don't think the other guardians would be prepared to see that tonight, especially not after that long journey here."

"Alright, I'll behave myself impeccably tonight." I promised them. "As for the rest of the trip that can't be guaranteed if I'm provoked."

The two guardians and I walked back to the main resort together. As we crossed the large terrace decorated with comfortable looking armchairs and fancy looking plants, I noticed that quite a few students had already freshened up and were enjoying the free time they had outside in such a beautiful place.

If it was allowed, I had every intention of coming out here when the sun was out for just an hour or so. Maybe I would get up extra early or something tomorrow if I could manage it. Since we were at such a beautiful resort, it would be a terrible shame if us dhampirs couldn't catch any sun at all. I asked Crispin and Joe if we were allowed to do such a thing as we headed up the stairs. They simply said that if we were able to get up early enough then yes but we weren't allowed to do that when it was meant to be lights out.

It took me fifteen minutes to have my shower since I had to shake the sand out of my hair and only another five to finish getting ready. Glancing at the schedule they had given us, I saw that whatever was planned for tonight shouldn't be strenuous so casual clothes were what they advised us to wear. It seemed that the Moroi were going to get total free reign for the rest of the evening and those of us in the guardian training program were going to have a two hour tour of the resort.

Dinner was absolutely spectacular. I'd thought that the food served at the dinner with the royals was the best food I'd ever had but this… this meal came very close to being on par. I was surprised that the Academy would have such phenomenal food on offer for us students.

We separated into our respective groups and followed the two guardians in charge of showing us around. They showed us a few discreet passageways that no doubt the normal guests wouldn't know about but I knew that the guardians in charge of the guests knew about every one of them.

By the end of the tour, a few of the novices were complaining that all the corridors looked the same. That it was stupid for them to expect us to know about them. They couldn't see the need to know about the secret passageways when there were fully trained guardians here to protect the guests. I couldn't help but scoff at their comments. If something were to happen, it was up to us to help out as much as we could while the guardians were busy handling the trouble. How could they not see that? Besides, I didn't think that the corridors looked the same. They all had different pictures, portraits and artworks and I easily drew a mental map of the routes that we'd taken, committing them all to memory.

Listening to them ramble, concern flooded through me. At least half of my classmates weren't taking this seriously. They seemed to take it for granted that there were guardians here. Had they forgotten about the raid on the Academy all those years ago? Had they forgotten that even with highly skilled guardians with us, things could still go so wrong? They needed to have some sense knocked into them soon otherwise they weren't going to last a minute against a real threat.

When the tour was over we were given three hours of free time before lights' out. Since we already had a fairly basic tour of the place, I decided to cut the guys some slack and didn't ask them to take us on a more detailed one. The twins definitely knew of a few more secret passageways, there was no way that they wouldn't. I'd get them to show me tomorrow if they weren't too tired from whatever the Academy had planned for us.

The eight of us spent our time lazing on the beach staring out at the open sea and the star filled sky above us. We didn't really talk about anything in particular, just about each other's plans for the summer. I noticed that now we were outside of Academy grounds, the others were incredibly relaxed. Even more so than earlier, I noticed and still couldn't hold back the excitement and intrigue as I observed them. They really had grown incredibly close. So close that they were basically cuddling with one another.

Having said that, observing them more carefully, I noticed that only Jacks and Roxy seemed to have a romantic air about them. Els, Ingrid, Quinn and Dan just seemed to be very close. I could practically see the sparks flying between Jacks and Roxy. The idea of them getting together was so exciting. I hoped that she would be able to cope with the pressure of dating a royal heir but I knew that Jacks would be a great support. They would work so well together. Considering their personalities, they would be so compatible.

When it came to lights out, the girls were out for the count pretty much right away. I on the other hand spent almost half an hour tossing and turning in my bed. Eventually, I gave up on trying to sleep and got out of bed. I pulled on a pair of sweats, a jumper and my trainers. I made sure to grab the key card before heading out of the room.

The corridors were quiet, much quieter than I had thought they would be. At the least I was expecting various students to be sneaking into each other's rooms. Maybe today really had tired them out. Even I was feeling somewhat tired and I didn't even run the laps earlier. But even though I was tired, I just couldn't get to sleep. My paranoia was getting the best of me, it was something that didn't happen very often.

I made my way downstairs intending to go out onto the terrace so that I could gaze up at the sky and get lost in the stars. But as I walked across the bar, an unfamiliar voice called out to me.

"What's a student from St. Vlad's doing up so late? Isn't it past your light's out already?"

I turned around and my eyes connected with a pair of green eyes that reminded me of fresh leaves on a tree. A sense of recognition coursed through me as I looked at his face but I couldn't figure out why for the moment.

"What's it to you?"

"Care to join me for a drink?"

"I'm underage."

"And that has stopped you from dabbling in such a delightful pastime? That is a sin."

"I didn't say I don't drink. But drinking here is a risk I'm not going to take. There are too many guardians around."

"Then perhaps my room? I have a fully stocked minibar."

I stared at him incredulously. Just who the heck was this guy? He was Moroi, that much I knew. He was also what many girls would classify as drop dead gorgeous. He was attractive in a more chiselled way compared to the royal quartet. I'd say he was about five years older than us give or take.

"You are out of your mind. The guardians won't be happy if you try to lay your hands on a student."

"Their opinions don't matter to me. Shouldn't you worry more about what would happen to you if they caught you out of bed?"

"Their punishments aren't hard to handle." I shrugged. "Besides, I couldn't sleep so I thought stretching my legs and maybe a little time in the sun would help wear me out."

"I was hoping I'd bump into you. I've heard so many stories about the new prodigy of the Academy. I never thought she'd be so…"

"What?"

"Hot."

I arched my brow at him and crossed my arms. "Seriously? You're making a pass at me?"

"Doesn't hurt to try."

"Thanks, you're attractive and all but I'm not interested. I'm just trying to pass my time at the Academy in as much peace as possible."

"Considering your capabilities and your achievements so far, that's not possible. Especially with what happened to Eric Cooper."

I stared at him warily and took a seat beside him at the bar. "Rumours spread far too quickly."

"If someone lays his hands in a foul manner on a prodigy, everyone will know about it."

"Where did you hear about it?"

"Court."

"Who are you?"

"Axel Zeklos," he introduced himself finally, extending a hand towards me. "Pleasure to meet you, Kylie Valentine."

I noticed how he flashed a flirtatious smile and his voice dropped down a couple tones when he said the word 'pleasure'. It didn't take a genius to work out he was a total playboy to the core. I rolled his name through my mind a couple of times before I finally understood why I thought I recognised him.

"You're related to Dan."

"I'm his favourite older cousin."

"How many does he have?"

"Just me."

I scoffed and tried to pull my hand away from his grip but frowned when he wouldn't let go. I watched as he pulled my hand up towards his lips and he placed a gentle kiss on my knuckles. "It really is a crime for such a pretty lady to need to fight and train as much as you do."

"You're going to be a handful, aren't you?"

"I don't have to be. We should spend some time together."

"I don't have the time for that. They've pretty much filled up our training schedule to the max here."

"I'm sure I'll find some way," he drawled.

I just stared at him in response. I got the feeling that he was going to use every chance he got to butt into my life. I'd met more than my fair share of charmers like him before. Sooner or later, he'd get bored. He'd realise that I wasn't nearly as mysterious as I appeared to be.

"You're going to give the guardians one massive headache. I can tell." I laughed, taking a seat beside him at the bar. He was going to be handful, that was for sure. But it could be quite fun. He'd certainly lighten things up a bit. And with my paranoia at the moment, that would be a nice distraction for me.

"Like I said, their opinions don't matter to me. They don't have to like me."

"But it would be more pleasant for you if they did. After all, you are a royal and must have your fair share of personal guards."

"It wouldn't be fun if I didn't annoy them every once in a while," he chuckled.

"You're a bad boy, huh?"

"You could call it that. Why didn't Eric Cooper's charms work on you?"

"Maybe because he was biting off far more than he can chew?" I scoffed.

"Anyone could see that but of course he had to try."

"He was far too arrogant for his own good."

"But with good reason. There has never been a girl he couldn't obtain. Until you."

"I'm not an easy prey."

"So it would seem. You know how to play the game."

"I had a lot of friends when I was living outside of the Academy. I know how to spot the game from a mile off."

"And how to manipulate it from the looks of things."

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve." I grinned, giving him my best man-eater smile for a joke. His eyes shone with amusement and delight and I realised I'd made a mistake. I just became his new source of amusement. I could see it as his eyes gleamed with excitement. And to think I was going to try and stay out of trouble for a while just to make my family's life a little easier. Well, considering how he just decided to butt into my life, I knew that my guardian family were going to have their hands full.

"You are going to be such a joy to be around. Life doesn't have to be boring anymore."

"If life is boring you, you're clearly living it all wrong. What are you doing here?"

"Having a drink. I would've thought that was obvious."

"I meant here at the resort."

"I had the time and thought it might be a good time to catch up with Dan. That and I wanted to meet the mysterious prodigy whose rumours fill the court with intrigue."

"I don't want to intrigue anyone much less the court. That can't be a good thing."

"It depends how you look at it."

"I don't want the attention."

"But attention seems to follow you around."

"An irritating fact of my life." I scoffed. "Are you and Dan close?"

"We were closer when we were younger but after I graduated and tried my stint at going to college we drifted apart a little."

"Life does that to people." I agreed.

"I hear through the grapevine that you have been invited to the charity event."

"How on earth did you know about that?"

"Rhiannon has been chatting non-stop about meeting you. She has a lot of ideas for you, you know. You're her latest muse."

"I knew that she was using me as one of her inspirations but a muse… wow…" I breathed in awe.

I realised that she was intrigued by me but I had no idea that it was to that extent. To be the muse of an artist of any sort was a huge honour. Even if I was trying to stay under the radar, even more so considering the secret I was hiding from almost the entire world, it was still flattering to hear that I had just become a designer's muse.

"She was bragging to me over the phone about how she got to meet you before I did. She was also saying something about making a few changes to the plans for her wedding."

"Seriously? I didn't realise that I had that much of an impact on her."

"Somehow, I get the feeling that you underestimate just how much you affect people."

"I'm beginning to realise. I mean, really now. It's not like I've done anything that interesting."

"I beg to differ. You broke out of the Academy with apparent ease for a mere soccer match."

"It was not a 'mere soccer' match as you so lightly put it." I correctly curtly.

"To most people it is not a significant enough reason to break out of the school, sweetheart. You are a total mystery. You do things in ways that none of us would. It's almost as if you're of a different species entirely."

"Now that's something we can agree on. Sometimes I do wonder that myself. Even I know that I think differently. But that's to do with the fact that I've lived outside in the real world I believe."

"And that's what makes you all the more intriguing. You have the most experience with the humans out of any student in the Academy. You know how to blend into the two worlds."

"Considering the amount of attention I seem to be getting, I'm not doing so well with blending into the vampire world, mister charmer."

"Mister charmer?" he mused, his brows raised in amusement.

"Oh come on. Anyone can see that you're a playboy to the core, Axel. It doesn't take a genius to notice that considering how you've hit on me more times than I can count in the space of less than five minutes."

"I like girls. There's nothing I can do about that."

"Apparently so." I laughed.

"Are you sure I can't tempt you to a drink?"

"Maybe some other time. But not tonight. I'd rather not get into trouble on the first day."

"You are no fun."

"Sorry to destroy your illusions of me, mister charmer, but I may just turn out to be less interesting than you think."

"I'll be the judge of that. For you to have become such good friends with Dan and the other three in such a short span of time, I doubt you'll be boring."

"Valentine?" Crispin called out, his voice laced with surprise. I turned to see him approach us with a suspicious stare.

"I'm not drinking, I promise."

"What are you doing out of bed. It was light's out half an hour ago."

"I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd head out to the terrace. Since it's safe here I thought it wouldn't hurt to catch some sun."

"Then what are you doing here at the bar?"

"I got caught by this charmer here." I scoffed, gesturing at Axel with my head.

"Prince Zeklos, apologies for interrupting your conversation." Crispin turned his attention to the man sitting beside me. When his eyes darted between the two of us curiously, I finally noticed just how close we were sitting. I hadn't even realised that Axel had been leaning towards me the whole time. If anyone else had caught us, no doubt they'd think of it as a compromising situation.

"You are?"

"Guardian Jenson. I work at the Academy."

"He's one of the guardians who's been training me along with Guardian Maxwell."

"You get personal training?" Axel blinked in surprise. "From what I've heard, you don't need any of that."

"A little extra practice never hurts anyone." I shrugged.

"You're not one of those fighting maniacs, are you?"

"I wouldn't say it like that." I grimaced. "But I do like martial arts."

"You are turning out to be more of a dangerous vixen than I thought. Attractive and good at fighting. You're going to have Moroi all around the world tripping over their feet to have you on their personal detail."

"I'd rather not think about that any time soon. I just want to get through my time at the Academy first."

"The clock's ticking, sweetheart. You may have two years left but those two years will whisk by before you know it."

"Still, graduation is a while away and Valentine won't need to think about such a thing for a while yet." Crispin cut in before I could say anything. "You need to go back to your room, Valentine."

I gave a sigh and slid off the chair. "It was nice meeting you, Axel. I get the feeling that I'll be seeing you around."

"You can count on it, sweet chick," he drawled. He grabbed my hand and once again placed a kiss on my knuckles. "Sweet dreams, I hope you'll be dreaming of me."

"I doubt it." I scoffed, pulling my hand away as I walked off back towards my room.

Crispin gave a curt inclination of his head towards Axel before following behind me. When we were finally out of sight and earshot from prying eyes, he fell into step beside me.

"Are you still thinking about this place being dangerous, Val?"

I glanced up at him in surprise and noticed the concern gleaming in his eyes. "I suppose so." I sighed. "I just couldn't sleep. I know I'm tired but my mind just refuses to rest. I thought that maybe a little walk would do me some good."

"Try your best to get some sleep. Maxwell and I wouldn't want you to tire yourself out from sleep deprivation."

"I'll do my best but I make no promises." I told him simply.

He walked me all the way back to the room and when I was about to open the door, I was surprised when his hand rested on my head. He gave me hair a light ruffle and sent me a warm smile. "Maxwell and I will keep our guard up to see if anything is out of place."

"Thank you." I told him earnestly with a small smile. "Good night, Crispin."

"Sleep well, Val."

With that exchange over, I opened the door and stepped inside as he walked away to carry on with his patrol.