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Chapter 5-

I woke up to my head pounding. It felt like someone had hit me with a hammer a couple of hundred times. I heard some whispers around me that I didn't recognize. Then it hit me; everything that had happened. I was enrolled at St. Vladimir's vampire academy. I bolted out of bed and tried to run for the door, but before I could get there two really scary looking dudes stepped in my way. I glanced around looking for a window or another door, anything I could to escape. I saw a tray next to me that looked pretty sturdy and went for it.

I hit on the guys in the head as hard as I could while I tried to kick the other one in the side. Unfortunately, they were ready for me. Even though I got a good hit to the one guy with the tray, the other caught my foot and landed me on my back. I instantly kicked around and caught him in the back of the knees causing him to crash to the ground. I wiggled my way out of his grasp and backed into the middle of the room. "Never fight your way into a corner," Tasha had told me. "It will only put you in more danger and make it harder to fight." I tried to remember everything she had taught me, but I really thought I was out of my league here. I was trying to fight people who were doing this as a living. The guy I hit with the tray tried to come for me and I let my fist shoot out hitting him in the nose. I heard a sickening crack and blood was pouring out of his nose, but that didn't slow him down. Now the other guy was coming at me. I picked up a chair and smacked at the one with the broken nose and then went for the other one. He grabbed it from my hands, but I was ready. While he was going for the chair I fell to the ground kicking his feet from under him and got up and ran for the door. I had barely made it to the end of the hall when I was slammed to the floor. My head was spinning with pain and now my arm screaming at me. The pain was almost unbearable. I was sure it was dislocated. I was at a loss and I knew it, but I was so not ready to be their lunch. Not today and not ever.

I sat still for a little while letting him think that I was giving up. When I felt him relax a little I shot my head back as hard as I could. I didn't do any good. "Martin, you need to calm down or I am going to detain you," he growled.

"Hell no, I'm not going to calm down," I hissed. "You're nuts if you think I'm going to stay around to be tonight's main course."

"You don't know what you're talking about," he hissed back. He got off of me keeping a tight grip on my arm. I screamed out in pain. I had never hurt so badly in my entire life. "You have dislocated your shoulder. You're going to need to get it looked at." I glared at him. "If you think that I am going to let one of them touch me, you have another thing coming." I tried to twist out of his grasp and kick out at him, but he caught me with not issues. "If you think I am going to allow you to land another blow to me, you have another thing coming," he growled. That pissed me off and I just wanted knock the shit out of him. But again he blocked my blow.

He led me back to the room I was in. "Please don't try anything stupid," he said. I plopped down on the bed defeated. I wanted to cry, but no way was I going to allow them to see it. I stared at the wall trying to keep my breaths even. I kept looking over at my guards wondering if I could try escape again, but my head was spinning and I was beginning to feel a little nauseated. I soon couldn't hold it back any more and ran for the trash can and puked my guts up. The guard whose nose I had broken came over to me and helped me back to my bed. "Do you want some water?" he asked. I looked over at him with tears in my eyes. "No, I just want to go home."

"Martin, things here are not bad. We are not allowing you to go home yet, because you need to be debriefed, but if you decide you want to go home once they have done so, you are fee to leave. The academy is not going to keep you here against your will." He gave me a small grin and sat down in the chair next to my bed. "My name is Langston and I must say that I am quite impressed with your fighting style. For a human you are very talented." I just looked at him in disbelief.

"Why am I here?" I asked in a small voice.

"Because we need your help," he said simply. "It will all be explained to you if you will just hear them out."

A moment later Lissa walked into the room. She stayed by the door and looked at me.

"Princess is there something we can do for you?" asked the other guard.

"No guardian Rimsky. I just came in to see how Sam was doing."

"Martin has a dislocated arm and I believe she has a concussion as well."

Lissa looked over at the guardian and her eyes widened. "What happened to you?"

"Martin put up a good fight," the Rimsky guy said. Then Lissa did the most amazing thing I had ever seen; she walked over and placed her hand on his face and when she removed it all traces of our fight were erased. I sat there completely agape. Then she walked over to Langston and did the same thing. I blinked unable to believe what I was seeing.

"How did you do that?" I asked

"I'm a spirit user," she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. I just stared at her with a blank face.

"If you decide to stay, you will learn all about it," she said coming over to me. I cringed back at first, but she just smiled at me. "I promise I am not going to hurt you, but you need to get that arm fixed, and my way is a lot less painful than the docs' way." I nodded and let her touch my arm. I became warm and then cold and then warm again and a very calm feeling rushed over me. Then she placed her hand on my head and I again became warm and then cold and then warm again. When she removed her hands my shoulder didn't hurt anymore and my head had stopped pound and I wasn't spinning anymore. I looked at her in amazement. "Thank you, "I whispered touching my head where she had healed it.

"It was my pleasure," she said.

I stared at her for a few moments before blurting out probably the stupidest thing I could say. "You're a vampire aren't you?"

Lissa laughed. "Yes, I am, but I don't want you to be afraid of me Sam. I want you to find a place here and be happy, but if you can't, I understand and will not hold it against you. I just wish you would stay for a few days at least, to I don't know, see how it is and meet some of the people."

I stared at her for a moment and then asked yet another wonderfully articulate thing. "Are you a princess?"

Lissa smiled at me and nodded. "I am, but I don't choose to flaunt my royal status. So just think of me as your friend Lissa and nothing more."

I looked at the two guards who were eying me and then back at Lissa. I had never had a friend before and I liked the sound of it, even if she was a vampire. I was still freaked out about the whole thing, but Lissa seemed so nice and I really didn't want to go back to my old life. I still wanted something new, a way to reinvent myself. I sighed. "Okay, I will give it a try, but if anyone tells me they are going to suck my blood, I am going to kick their asses and be on the first flight out of here." Lissa laughed at me. "I think that is agreeable. How about I show you to your room so you can get some rest and in a few hours when everyone is up, I will introduce you to some of my friends, again. I have a feeling you didn't really take all of that in yesterday."

I shook my head. "Nope, I basically got vampires and fire and blooming roses and then nothing."

Lissa laughed. "Well, they are going to be happy to meet you, again. And I must say that you made a great impression on Christian."

I gave her confused look. "What do you mean?"

"Anyone that can give Rose a sarcastic attitude like you did is good in his book."

"Okay then," I said.

Lissa smiled and grabbed my hand. Let's get you to your room and settled in so you can get some sleep."

I nodded again and looked at the two guards again. "Hey, you ever want to go another round, you know where to find me," I said.

They both looked over at me and grinned. "Oh we will be taking you up on that offer Martin, don't you worry about that," said Langston.

"Oh and um, sorry about your head and face and stuff, I was little freaked."

"No worries, I'm actually impressed," said Rimsky.

Lissa shook her head and smiled. "Yeah, you are definitely going to fit in just fine here," she said with a laugh and headed out of the room with me following close behind.