Blood Born (18 page)

2

For the next couple of weeks, I had a hard time focusing on my training. After Chance basically asked me out (okay, technically just as friends) I could barely think of anything else. I worked as hard as I could to learn what Kayla, Erik and Lila had tried to teach me—while pulling double duty training with Aldric—but I didn’t think very much of it was staying with me. Thoughts of stake-handling and long-distance running were sharing space in my mind with thoughts of Chance and me having a great time at the dance. The latter of the two was definitely winning the race.

When the week before the Valentine’s dance arrived, I was a basket case. I couldn’t focus on anything. My training was going horribly wrong, and I somehow managed to make both my vampire teacher and my vampire
hunting
teachers mad—something I’m sure no one else could ever say. Aldric had been respectful enough to not be mean, though he wouldn’t give me time off to get prepared for the dance. Erik and Lila, on the other hand, weren’t as laid back. Well, Erik was, but Lila was really ticked off, and told me after our training lesson on Sunday afternoon that she wouldn’t be back until I grew up. I had gotten mad and told her to shove it, though I totally deserved it. Erik said she would calm down after a couple of days, and that they would see me next week. I was grateful that with such an important night only days away, I only had to deal with Aldric’s training, which I was surprisingly beginning to enjoy. And that scared me. All this time I had been railing against my vampire side, and now, suddenly, I was starting to embrace it. What did that say about me? Honestly, I was too scared to find out.

I had butterflies in my stomach when Chance pulled us into the school parking lot, scared of what would happen when I saw Kayla. She hadn’t really said much yesterday after our workout, other than she would see me at school, but I could tell by her tone that she was upset. So I was nervous that I may have ruined a truly important and great friendship. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to see her until gym class, so I had to spend the day with my stomach tied in knots—something else I probably deserved.

I made a beeline for the girls’ locker room once inside the gym, my nose telling me that Kayla was already in there. I was so glad that I had just about perfected my sense of smell. I noticed Lacey pow-wowing with a group of look-a-like girls at the far end of the bleachers—where she and I had had our first run-in—and decided to be the bigger person and give her a wave and a smile. She politely responded with a go-to-hell glare and pursed lips. I felt a tiny twitch in my gums that I quickly made go away. I had managed to get a somewhat decent grip on
that
during my month-long training, too.

“Kayla?” I whispered into the locker room, not wanting to call attention to myself if other girls were around. “You in here?”

“Back here.” I heard her tiny voice from around the corner and snuck to the back of the room. I found her sitting on a small wooden bench. She had, already changed into our garish gym clothes and busily tying her sneakers. “What’s up?” Her friendly tone surprised me. I had half-expected her to be bitchy toward me, but was so thankful she wasn’t.

“Not much. Just wanted to talk.”

“What’s wrong?” She stood up and took a very quick look around the room, her lifetime of being on alert for danger obviously taking over.

“Nothing like that,” I said, waving off her paranoia with a flip of my hand and a smile. “No activity for awhile now.” A look of relief passed over Kayla’s face. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m fine,” she said, tossing her gym bag into a locker behind her.

“Good.” I hesitated before adding, “Are
we
okay?” Kayla turned around and stared at me like a deer caught in headlights.

“Why wouldn’t we be?” she asked.

“Well, I thought you might have been mad about the way I’ve been acting the past couple of weeks. I haven’t been the greatest friend.” I knew that Kayla’s dad’s birthday had fallen within the past few days, and I hadn’t even said anything to her. She had been obviously upset over the fact that her father was missing, but I was too consumed with my own drama to console my hurting friend.

“It’s cool. I know you’ve had a lot on your mind lately. No biggie.” She sauntered past me to the bank of sinks on the wall and quickly checked herself in the mirror. It was the first time I had seen her show the tiniest bit of concern for the way she looked. It was sweet.

“Great.” I was a little caught off-guard by her kindness. I think that on some subconscious level, I was actually hoping she would have at least been a little pissed off. But she was obviously not the type to dwell on pettiness; something I hoped would rub off on me. “But I’m sorry anyway.” I figured apologizing for my attitude toward her and Erik and Lila was the least I could do.

“Apology accepted.” She quickly turned from the sink. “Now, let’s run.”

“What? Run? Where?”

“Well, just because Erik and Lila put off your training doesn’t mean I have. And since you don’t really have time after school this week because of your
date,
” she paused long enough to flash a wicked smile, “I decided we could use P.E. to get in some running.” She stood strong, her tiny frame looming as large as possible. She was a good foot shorter than me, but I was a little intimidated by her confidence.

“Oh. Okay.” I had really hoped she would give me the week off too, since Friday was the dance and I was super-nervous, but that wasn’t happening. And I guessed that putting in some extra exercise would only help make my ‘one hundred kills’ goal a little easier. I was actually surprised and a little upset that not a single vampire had shown up for weeks. Even though I hated having to kill them more than anything—technically I hadn’t killed
any
of them, but still—I needed to do it if I ever expected to be all human again. “And it’s not a date,” I added, quickly changing into my own horrible gym clothes. “We’re just friends.”

Kayla cut her eyes at me and smiled. “Whatever you say.” I chose to ignore her taunting—and that sly little grin she kept plastered on her face the entire time I was getting changed. Once I tied my shoes, she was practically bouncing off the walls. “Finally,” she said with a huff. “Let’s go.” I rolled my eyes at her impatience, but dutifully followed her outside, where the strong, icy wind was whirling around the gymnasium like a tornado.

Dead leaves were scooped up and then dropped over and over by the wind as Kayla and I broke into a full-on run right out of the gym door. It caught me off guard, giving Kayla a pronounced lead. I almost had to use my super speed to catch up to her—which would have
definitely
made her mad. She and Erik and Lila had made me promise after our first day of training that I wouldn’t use any of my supernatural advantages unless it was absolutely necessary. They had wanted me to train as a human, swearing it would make me stronger in the end. Apparently they were right, since after only a quarter mile or so, I had almost caught up to her. We left the open space of the field where Chance and the other sports nuts were deep into a football game, hitting the track that wound around campus. As we jogged along at a steady pace—Kayla several feet in the lead—I was so grateful that someone had bothered to salt the asphalt track to keep it from icing. I really didn’t want to show up at the dance Friday night wearing a cast because of a stupid fall.

The brutal New England winter air pounded my face, making me feel alive and
human
, as Kayla and I followed the track into the dense forest at the farthest end of campus—the same woods where Chance killed that first vampire. I was overcome with an eerie sense of unwanted nostalgia once we slipped under the blanket of trees and brush, the dying face of the girl flashing in my mind over and over. Perfect. Just what I needed, a reminder of the
un
life I was now forced to live. I suddenly felt like I was a fraud, an imposter. Here I was, trying to pass as an ordinary girl, when I was really a deadly monster. A killer. I was pathetic. I couldn’t pull this off. I couldn’t blend in and go unnoticed when I had to run around town killing people. And I sure as hell couldn’t get into a relationship with Chance or anyone else.

I was on the verge of turning around and heading back to the gym and telling Chance that I was canceling our plans, when the all too familiar scent of death slapped me in the face. I ignored Kayla’s warning about not using my super speed and quickly closed the gap between us. I latched onto her arm, pulling her to a sudden and jarring stop.

“Don’t tell me,” she said through ragged breathing.

“Yeah.” I answered. “There’s a vampire nearby.”

I barely got the words out when I was blindsided and knocked a good hundred yards away by a very large, very pissed off vampire.

Fortunately, I wasn’t knocked unconscious by the impact my body made with a large pine tree. I felt the wood snap beneath the force, the top half of the tree crashing to the ground below. The pain shot up my back and across my body. I couldn’t breathe, and my head felt like red-hot fire. I knew I had to get up and defend myself or the vampire would be on me, ripping the skin from my neck and draining my blood, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t stand. I couldn’t move.

Get up, Ava. Get up now!

The voice in my head grew loud and powerful, and I focused all my energy on doing what it told me. My mind flashed back to that first night at Aldric’s, when he had drop-kicked me into the wall of his basement. That pain was intense, but if felt like a paper cut compared to this. This was a new kind of pain, a pain so massive I thought I was going to die. I was actually wishing for it, just to make the agony go away.

You have to help her, Ava. It’s going to kill her.

Kayla. She was all alone to fight the vampire. I knew she could probably fight the vampire off for a while, but no way could she win the battle alone, not without some sort of weapon. And what better place to find a makeshift stake than in the middle of the woods. I rolled my body over, surprised and thankful that the vampire hadn’t shown up to kill me yet. Of course, that only meant that he was probably too busy killing Kayla. I couldn’t let that happen.

I found a hidden burst of energy and pulled myself from the ground. The massive, towering trees around me were swaying so badly I thought we were in the middle of a hurricane. I quickly realized it was my head that was spinning, not the trees. I closed my eyes, letting my body get accustomed to standing, before running over as fast as I could to help Kayla. The vampire was on top of her, his fangs inches from her neck and dripping deadly venom. She was doing her best to hold him off, but I could see through the haze of my concussion that he was inching closer and closer to her, and she was rapidly growing tired from trying to fight him. It would only be seconds before his teeth made contact with her skin. I had to act fast.

I jumped as hard and fast as I could, my body flying through the air like a rocket. I watched the trees shoot past me, clearly making out the moss-covered bark on their trunks. It was like I was flying in slow motion, but I knew I wasn’t. I made contact with the vampire about to drain Kayla’s blood, and the two of us spun off of her in a mesh of fangs and venom and snarls.

Just touching him made me mad, filling my body with rage and violence. I thought of nothing else but ending this creature’s life, and after several minutes of struggling, I found my chance. I grabbed a large, fallen branch from an oak tree and snapped it in half, while pinning the vampire’s arms with my legs. He squirmed wildly beneath me, flopping around like a fish out of water. He was bigger than me, both in height and weight, but I was stronger. I could feel the muscles in his body pound against my legs like granite slabs, but I wasn’t letting up. I gripped a piece of the broken branch, stared down at the monster beneath me, and drove it down hard.

It didn’t even pierce the skin. The branch broke in my hands, flying off in a thousand tiny splinters. I still had a firm grip on the vampire with my legs, but I knew that it wouldn’t hold long. Panic filled my nerves, and I searched frantically for something to kill him with. That’s when I saw Kayla sprinting toward us. She had blood running down her face from what looked like a broken nose, and her clothes were matted in dirt. She ran up to me and pressed the vampire’s head hard against the ground with her foot.

“You have to bite it,” she said, her wild eyes glaring at me. “Bite it, Ava. It’s the only way.” The vampire realized what was about to happen and began screeching, a sound unlike anything I had ever heard.

“I can’t!” I yelled out amidst the chaos. “I can’t do it!” I knew in my mind I had to. It was the only way to keep him from killing us. But something was stopping me.

“It’s already dead, Ava,” Kayla said, her voice calm but urgent. “But we’re not. If you don’t do it now, we will be.” I could see in her eyes that she was scared. I was too. More scared than I had ever been. But I also couldn’t let anything happen to her. I couldn’t let this monster kill her, so I had no choice but to kill it first.

“Okay,” I finally said, staring down into the burning eyes of the vampire. “How do I do it?”

Kayla gave me a quizzical look. “With your fangs.”

“What?!” I glared up at her, her tiny frame struggling to hold the vampire down. For some strange reason, my mind didn’t register when she said I had to bite the vampire to kill it. But when she said the word
fangs
, the realization of what that meant flooded my senses. “I-I can’t. And I’m not just saying that because I don’t want to, and believe me, I
really
don’t want to. But, I don’t know how.” That was something Aldric had never shown me. We went over tracking the blood scent, kickboxing, using my powers of compulsion to dupe humans into doing things for me—which I refused to do, but which Aldric insisted I learn—practically everything needed to achieve my goal. Except how to actually use my fangs. I had said I would never bite a human, so I guess he didn’t think it was something I needed to know. Right now, sitting on top of a vampire with no other way to kill it, I was fuming mad at him.