The Sons of Satrina: A Sons of Satrina Novel (13 page)

Chapter Fourteen.

Jackson was up and ready before the rest of the guys and risking the late afternoon sun to go and get in the showers early.  He couldn’t sleep and didn’t see the point in lying there any longer.  Plus, it wouldn’t be long before the rest of the rough herd were up and about, so he’d wanted to try and miss the rush.

Piling down to the cafeteria
with Trey, Dylan and Jase, they all mounded piles of food onto their plates, knowing that they would need all the strength that they could get if they were going to be up against the pre-grad students again.  The combat training had been gruelling. Especially seeing as the older guys were getting ready to graduate from the academy, they were throwing everything they had at them.

Just as he was about to start munching down on a huge blueberry muffin (Jackson had decided to mix healthy with tasty this morning, he was absolutely starving) he felt something cold hit his head and start to slide uncomfortably down the back of his neck.  With a shiver and an inhuman roar, he stood up and spun around to see Denver grinning behind him.

“What the hell do you think you’re playing at?”

Denver tried to feign innocence, holding
his hands up,  but the big shit-eating grin that was threatening to break his face in half sort of gave him away.

“Oh no!
I am soooooooo sorry, Jackson. Did I get you?  Darn it.  You see, it was an accident.  I tripped and I think I spilled my drink. Oops.”  Denver held up his empty glass and tried to bite back a laugh, but failed miserably, relishing in his trouble causing.  Again. 

Meanwhile, the rest of the dinner hall had fallen silent, waiting to see with baited breath what would happen next.  Most of the guys would bet on Jackson coming out on top if they were to get into a fight, but Denver was sure to play dirty, so you never know.

“What is your fucking problem?”  Jackson said in a low voice. He was positively seething.  Denver was pushing his buttons on a daily basis and Jackson wasn’t sure how much longer he could go before he snapped.  They’d only been here a short time and he was already near breaking point.

“My
problem?  Well, at the moment it seems that I no longer have a drink and I’m quite thirsty, so I’d guess I’d better go get another one.”  Denver smirked.

Just as Jackson was about to make a lunge for him, a murmur went through the rest of the guys in the hall.  Jackson assumed that that meant that the faculty were on the way over to break it up, so he risked a glance towards the main entrance, and stopped dead in his tracks.

Kayleigh was walking in, followed by a girl a year or so younger than him.  She was probably the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Only a second later, he registered the same thing that the rest of the guys in the hall did.

She had the mark of a Warrior.

Or at least that was what it looked like.  It couldn’t be, though, could it?

Suddenly, the hall erupted in noise.  People were even standing to
get a better look at her. To give the girl her due, even though she did look instantly embarrassed by all the swift attention and chatter, she held her head high and carried on talking animatedly with Kayleigh.  He admired the confidence she displayed.

With a quick wave of her hand at the girl, Kayleigh turned to face the rest of the hall with her hands on her hips and a stern expression on her face.

“Quieten it down in here! You are all warriors in the making.  This sort of behaviour is not what we expect of you.  Not at all.  You‘re acting like a bunch of little kids. ”

They did quieten down
to a dull roar at least, speculating on what was happening.  How this girl had gotten the mark, what it meant, was it a coincidence, why, when, was it just a coincidence, blah, blah, blah.

A
ll Jackson would do was stand there, gaping at her, with milk dripping from the ends of his hair. She was incredible.

Suddenly, she turned her face in his direction and caught his eye.  As he saw the look of amusement on her face, he turned away before her, or any of the others, could see him blush. Quickly he grabbed his jacket and bag and got the hell out of there as fast as he could, ignoring the guys who shouted after him to wait up.

He didn’t know what was worse.  The fact that the girl was laughing at him, albeit in a friendly way, or that he could still hear Denver howling loudly behind him, the sound echoing out in the hallway in a taunting manner.  He would have to pay him back for this little episode, that‘s for sure. He doubted that the rest of the pre-grads would let Denver get away with it, either.  Not that he wouldn’t rather do the pummelling himself. The guy definitely deserved it, did it really matter who dished it out? 

Trying to shake the memory of the girl out of his head, Jackson jogged back to his room to pick up a set of clean clothes before heading out for another shower before classes started.  He didn’t really have time for it, and not having breakfast wasn’t the best way for him to handle a day of combat training, but there was no way on this earth he was going to walk around all day smelling like sour milk.  He wouldn’t give Denver the satisfaction.

He didn’t know what had set it off. Whether it was the anger this morning or whatever it was, but Jackson felt a wave of hunger sweep through his body.  It was different this time, and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to put it off any longer.  The brutal workout that the pre-grad students were putting them through lately was sure not to be helping any either.  It was just unfortunate that he’d have to forgo his morning sessions to head down to quench this thirst.  Luckily, first thing this morning was a History of the Mortuorum lecture with Professor Fieldman, so he wasn’t missing out on any physical training. He was going to try his hardest to keep to his schedule and run back down there as soon as he was done.

Professor Fieldman had seen the look of hunger pain cross his face as he’d sat there in her class and tried to ride through the urge, but she was having none of it.
  He didn’t have a choice now. He was going to have to suck it up - pardon the pun - and make his way to the in-house donors. Before sending him on his way, the professor gave him a quiet lecture in the hallway about how a warrior has to keep up their strength, his responsibilities as a warrior, blah, blah, blah.  It really wasn’t what he needed to hear right now.  He knew all that, but he’d been so preoccupied with training that he’d tried to put off the inevitable.

He didn’t have much of a choice in the matter now, anyway.

Great, he thought.

Walking through the corridors, it was easy to spot where the main combat academy ended and the human living quarters began.  Gone were the clinically clean line and in with the home comforts.

Here there were various paintings on the walls, depicting beaches in the sunlight, forests in the spring.  The furnishings were made for comfort, and a television blared from behind one of the closed doors.  There was a feeling here that immediately put you at ease.  It was like coming home. 

But none of this was meant to put Jackson or any of the other warriors at ease.  It was just an after effect of what was created for the humans.  It was supposed to create a home away from home for them, the willing donors who were gracious enough to supply their blood to the warriors and the trainees on site.  They were treated like royalty and the staff, understandably, demanded that everyone show them the utmost respect when they approached them for their services.  Another words - don’t hit on the donors.

Jackson just felt plain cold.  He hadn’t grown up this way.  He didn’t feed off of people he had only just met. Strangers.  He hadn’t grown up that way.  Like a lot of the others here, there were always willing human donors on hand, those that they could call no matter what time of the day or night, but it was a routine that he was familiar with.  He had grown up with the human family and they‘d all been close, friends even. 

The human family had treated him like a long lost cousin every time he entered their home, feeding him up with homemade cookies and cakes, spoiling him and fussing over him.  Obviously, most humans would be distraught at the thought of calling round to a friend’s house to chug down some blood, but Jackson was a vampire.  That was all he had ever known, same as the family who supplied the blood.  It was
a natural part of their lives. One that he had taken for granted before coming here. 

Nothing was the same here and he didn’t relish the thought of having to strike up new friendships/relationships.

Jackson was quite unusual in that respect.  A lot of the Matris shunned away from human companionship, but Jackson made a point of making friends with the kids in his neighbour.  So, he was a little different from them.  So what?  The Matris community wasn’t that large and sometimes, socialising with the same people day in day out could be stifling, especially with his hoard of sisters at home ‘looking out’ for him.  Which was why, when he had been growing up, he had had close friendships with many humans, including his best friend in the world, Maria.

It had taken him countless years to admit to her why he couldn’t hang out with her during the day, why he didn’t attend the same school as her and whatnot.  It was a fear also that she would be horrified by him and turn away.  He couldn’t bear to lose her, but he didn’t want to lie to her any longer than was necessary.  Obviously, no one else knew that Maria was in on their big secret, as revealing yourself to the
human community was deeply frowned upon.  His warrior-ship would have been called in to question, but he had trusted Maria implicitly.

Her response when he told her at first was one of outright humour, she thought that he was kidding.  After all, vampires don’t really exist, do they?  It had taken only a little convincing in the end, and funnily enough, it wasn’t even his fangs that made her believe him.  She’d just thought that they were an elaborate pair of fake teeth that h
e had bought over the internet. He couldn’t remember at exactly what point she started to believe, but once she did, she never judged him for it.  That was what you call true friendship, accepting others for what they couldn’t or wouldn’t change about themselves.

However, once he had told her, she’d become one of his regular sources of nourishment, and he missed the closeness that he’d shared with her.  It had been such a relief to be honest with her and not have her go running for the hills.  And when she had offered her own blood to him?  Well, he was speechless.  At first, he had refused, thinking that the boundaries were being pushed too far, but she had accepted that element of his life and wanted to be part of it.

The first time he drank from her, they’d both been shaking that badly that they nearly had to call it quits.  He didn’t want to hurt her and she was fearing the unknown.  Would it hurt?  Jackson couldn’t say for sure, because he had never bitten a human who hadn’t experienced it before.  He knew that there were people out there who relished the bite. It was the whole pleasure/pain thing.  A vampire bite was often described as one of the most sexual highs you could ever achieve, that blissful buzz that lingered longer than any physical sexual satisfaction could ever hope to. 

Sure, before that first bite, they had had a pur
ely platonic relationship. But after?  Things changed.  For the better. They both agreed on that.  It was what brought them together, but she would always be his best friend for life, no matter what.  They had both promised to keep in constant (or at least as constant as his training allowed) contact by phone and email, and he knew that they always would.  If she needed him, she knew that he would be there in a flash, and vice versa.

T
hat was what he wanted right now.  He wanted the familiar. The known.  He didn’t want to be walking down this hallway to some stranger. He wanted what he knew.  He wanted what he was comfortable with.

But, he had no choice.

Heading down the main corridor, which seemed to lead to a sitting room, he saw an older woman get up from the lavish sofa and turn to smile at him before he had even had a chance to announce himself.

“Hello?  Jackson?  Good afternoon, I’m Sofia.  We were told to expect you.” she said, smiling in a way that instantly softened his shoulders.  She was a homely looking woman, with a short brown bob, average height, and average figure.  She kind of reminded him of Jackie, the mother of the human family that he had grown up visiting for nourishment.

The humans here worked on a nocturnal schedule, because it wouldn’t do for them to be sleeping when they were called on.  It was just common sense really.  To someone on the outside, it may sound a little strange to hear someone saying ‘good afternoon’ in the middle of the night, but that was just how things were when you hung around with vampires.  They had their morning when they woke up at sunset, afternoon in the early morning and evening shortly before they retired before sunrise.  It didn’t seem at all weird to any of them, after all, it was normal for them, as it was for the humans who served them. 

“Yes, t
hank you.” he replied politely.  After all, it wasn’t their fault that he wasn’t comfortable with the situation, and he appreciated this woman trying to make him feel at home with her winning smile.

“Louisa Mae will be out with you in a moment, would you care to take a seat while you are waiting?  Perhaps I could bring you something to drink? Tea? Coffee?”

Jackson smiled and thanked her again as he sat down, but declined anything to drink.  He didn’t want to appear rude, but he didn’t think his stomach could cope with anything but blood right now.  The craving was worse than ever, and it took quite a bit of effort for him not to double over with the pain.