The Sons of Satrina: A Sons of Satrina Novel (5 page)

However, on the other side of the door, it was a completely different matter.

“What’s up, Leigh. Talk to me.” Kelton’s voice was full of concern. He stepped closer to put a comforting hand on her hip.

“Oh, Kelton. I don’t know how to tell you this. I just can’t believe it’s happened. It’s just so wrong.” A sob escaped her throat as she tried to fight the emotion that was building within her. “Kelton, Oh Kelton.” She laid a hand on his arm, trying to absorb some of his strength.

“What is it?”

“It’s Bartholomew.”

Kelton felt like his blood had turned to ice and his eyes became as motionless as a shark. “What about him.”

“He’s dead.”

Chapter Five.

“Kelton? Did you hear me?” Kayleigh laid a gentle hand on his arm again.

Abruptly, he backed away from her. His eyes had not yet returned to their usual pool of shimmering emerald green. The deadly, dangerous black rage remained in full force.

“No.” h
e growled.

Kayleigh knew him well enough to stand back and let him process it in his own way. In his own time. There was no sense in pushing him. If she got too close, he would never forgive himself if he hurt her, even not in his right mind. She couldn’t do that to him. This rage that he was feeling was pulling from deep down in his soul and he couldn’t be held responsible for his actions. The warrior in him was calling for immediate revenge.

“No!” he roared and turned to punch the wall. The plaster crumbled under his raw anger.

The classroom door behind them opened up just a crack and Kayleigh quickly turned and said in a voice that was quiet but laced with stern authority, “Please, stay in the classroom. Someone will be in with you shortly.” The door clicked shut quickly and without argument. Anyone with half a brain could see that this was not a good time to interrupt.

“What happened? When did this happen?” Kelton’s voice sounded barely recognisable, simply the angry growl of an emotionally wounded soldier.

“It happened just before dawn. It was the Mortuorum. They left their mark all over the place. It was a total mess. Not a single survivor.”

The silence echoed through the empty corridor.

This was the worst thing that could happen to them all as a race. Their leader had been assassinated. Who knew what would happen now? The only thing that was clear in Kelton’s mind was that his death needed to be avenged, and soon. His warrior sense roared to the surface, blinding him to reason.

He couldn’t believe that Bartholomew was gone.

Bartholomew had been the father that he had never known. His mother had raised him all alone. Kelton’s father had been a warrior before him and he had grown up know
ing that he would be stepping into his shoes one day. He had always had so much to live up to. Growing up, he had missed the male role model that his father would have provided. Bartholomew had filled that gaping hole in his life.

When he had first come to the Academy as a trainee, Bartholomew was still playing an active role in fighting in the war against the Mortuorum. This was before he had taken a back seat to rule behind a desk as opposed to behind a sword. Up until meeting Kelton, there had never been anyone who he trusted to take over leading the fight. Apparently, he had seen something in Kelton. The strength in him had been so strong from the first moment he had set eyes on him. That was why Bartholomew had worked him to the bone, building him into the greatest warrior in Lamia history.

He owed everything to Bartholomew.

Not that Kelton had understood any of that at the time. All he knew back then was that he had been picked on mercilessly by their leader from the very start. He didn’t realise that he was testing him from the moment he stepped foot in the Academy. Testing his strength, his resolve and his loyalty.

Bartholomew had been more than a leader or a teacher to Kelton. He was family.

Bartholomew had taken him from a cocky teenager with no respect and had moulded him into the determined killing machine that he was today. One with intelligence, loyalty and compassion.

And now he was gone.

Kelton brushed a hand through his bristly, short hair and closed his eyes.

He couldn’t fall apart now.

Bartholomew would have expected better from him.

He had to fight.

Chapter Six.

“Man, whatever’s happening out there, it doesn’t sound so good.” Trey Masterson said after he had carefully closed the door.
             

Trey towered over the rest of the newbie’s, but his size didn’t represent his nature.  He was like a giant teddy bear.  He was one of those guys who sometimes don’t
realise the size that he was. Sort of like a Great Dane thinking that he was the size of a little Cocker Spaniel.  Trey was the whole package – strength, intelligence, skill, sense, determination, compassion, all mixed in with a little rebellion.  He was the perfect recipe for a warrior of worth.

Sitting back down
, he had to squeeze his huge frame into the average sized plastic blue chair.  Running a hand through his short, spiky golden blonde hair, Trey turned his questioning gaze on the others.

“Well, day one and we’ve seen the Great Warrior Kelton lose the plot already.” Denver sneered.

The rest of the guys turned to glare at him, unable to believe the amount of stupidity that could spew forth from his mouth on occasion.  Kelton had been decent enough to give him a second chance at being taught by him, and the kid just didn’t learn.

“What?!”  Denver
smirked, shrugging his shoulders in mock innocence.  He really didn’t care, either.

In unison, the rest of them shook their heads at him and turned to sit back down at their desks, turning away from him.  Whatever was happening was big and most of them knew better than to try and get involved.  They were old enough to understand that this was serious.  If it was something that they needed to know about, they’d be told.  They weren’t kids, but this didn’t stop the
m discussing it quietly.

“What do you think is going on?”  Trey asked the others, just in case they had heard something that he hadn’t.

“Not a clue, man. Not a clue.”

They all sat in silence as there wasn’t anything e
lse that they could really do. Until the door broke open again and Kayleigh re-entered the room, looking very tense.

“Master Warrior Kelton sends you all his apologies.  Something unavoidable has cropped up and he has had to deal with it personally.  As we have no other warriors available to teach the class at this time, I have been asked to advise you that the rest of the lesson has been postponed.  You should use this time to orientate yourself with the school, retrace your steps from yesterday and familiarise yourself with your surroundings.

“At the moment, the rest of your lessons should continue as planned but please be warned that they may also change at short notice. This is a very unique situation that we are dealing with here and we ask you all to bear with us.  Thank you.”

And before anyone could comment or ask any questions, Kayleigh had scooped up the box of weapons and quickly swept out of the room, her long black skirt chasing after her, the door closing again before anyone could draw a breath.

Denver was obviously the first one up and out of his seat, muttering under his breath “I’ll bear with her alright.” with a suggestive leer as he strolled out of the classroom without so much as a backwards glance, a vapid grin plastered in place.  Not that any of the others bothered to take much notice of him.  Well, that was except for Lewis Doaves, who seemed to be taking up the unenviable position of his lap dog. He ran after him, slipping out of the door before it could click shut.

Jackson felt sorry for Lewis.  At their age, most of them had discovered who they were, or at least had an
idea of who they wanted to be. But Lewis was stuck in the unenviable position of being Denver’s sidekick.  The pair of them seemed to have reverted back to their high school roles, which to Jackson thought just highlighted their maturity levels.

The rest of them sat there in silence for a couple of minutes, just looking at each other.  It must be big, whatever was happening.  They now had to decide what to do with themselves next.

Jackson didn’t like the whole feeling of the situation.  It felt like something really huge was going down.  It made him squirm in his skin.

Full of nervous energy, he quickly made up his mind to head down to the gym to work out for a bit.  He didn’t have anything else
to do. After all, the term had only just started so it wasn’t like they were drowning under the pressure of work.  There was no point in wandering aimlessly around the school and there was nothing wrong with trying to stay at his physical peak.  The exercise might do him some good anyway and work off some of this tension that he was feeling.

Grabbing his bag, he gave a little nod over to the guys and Tr
ey, Dylan Stott and Jase quickly followed suit and filed out into the corridor.

“What if this is some kind of test?  To see what we’d do without their leadership?”  Dylan whispered.

“No.  No, something’s happening.  Something really big is going on here.”  Jackson’s voice was full of concern.

No one said another word as they walked down through the building and towards the gym.  They all remained in silence as they went into the changing room and got kitted out in their work out gear.

The shrouded silence stayed with them as Jackson pounded it out on the tread mill.  He couldn’t shake the foreboding feeling that was rooting itself deep in his bones.  The feeling was just getting worse with the passing of every minute.

Even as the sweat was dripping off of his temples, he still didn’t let up the pace.  It was almost as if he thought that if he kept working and pushing his limits to the extreme then he’d eventually get back to feeling normal.  It sure wasn’t working so far.

His body screamed for mercy as he pumped his legs and closed his eyes, blocking out the pain.  Sweat laced his skin in a fine sheen, the ink designs on his chest and back glistened under the stark lighting.  Jackson felt like he was fighting a losing battle.

Finally, giving in, he jumped off of the tread mill and his jelly legs struggled to hold him up.   Looking around, he realised that he was the last one left in the gym.  The other had clearly given up long ago.  It was a good thing, though.  He was glad to have some alone time right now.  He felt a little faint and weak and didn’t need the audience of a few of the guys that he had just starting making friends with here to witness it.

More or less falling to the floor, Jackson held his pounding head in his hands.  The quiet in the room was almost deafening to him, crushing in on him, making him feel like he was suffering from claustrophobia. 

Pushing his hands down on his knees, he shakily made his way back to standing and got up and headed over to the showers.  He didn’t know
what else to do with himself. He felt like he was falling apart at the seams.  So for now, he would just stick to the practical.  And a shower was definitely needed.

This was not exactly how he had expected his first day at the school
to pan out, not in the least.

Poking his head into the next class that he was due to attend, Jackson found the place eerily empty.  Which was a good thing really, seeing as he was really late.  It wasn’t the best move for him to make on his first day, good impressions and all that, but he had gotten distracted in the gym and the time had seemed to run away with him.  That would be the least of their problems today though.

One of the other new guys came rushing around the corner and thrust a piece of paper into Jackson’s hand before speeding off again.

Scanning quickly over the sheet of paper, he saw that it informed him that the rest of the days schedule had also been cancelled.  Something big was definitely going down.  There didn’t seem to be much else to do but head back up to his room.  The rest of the guys would be probably hanging out, speculating on what was going on, but he didn’t fancy chilling with the other guys right now.  The pain in his gut and head were getting beyond unbearable.  All he wanted to do was to go to bed, curl up under the covers and shut out the world.

Moving back in his room, he was surprised by quite how comforting it was to be back amongst his belongings.  He’d only been here one night, but it was already starting to feel familiar.  It was only a small space, with minimal furniture, but he’d already made his mark on the place.  Clothes were dotted around, CD’s littered the desk.

Lying on his bed, Jackson had his eyes closed for a minute in an attempt to relax his brain and stop the room from swimming. He grabbed hold of the ear phones of his iPod in an attempt to use Fall Out Boy to drown out his pain, when all of a sudden, a loud alarm rang out in the corridor.

Jumping
off of the bed, Jackson ripped out the ear plugs of his iPod and lunged for the door in a panic and found the corridor teaming with other students.  They were all looking around, seeming to wonder what the hell was going on, and no one had any idea.  They hadn’t been warned about any fire drills being planned or anything else like that.

“What’s
going on?”  Jackson shouted to Dylan, who was making his way through the crowd to join him.

“No idea.” Dylan
replied, standing next to Jackson and looking around with wide eyes.

A larger male, obviously a student who had been here for at least a couple of years was heading down the corridor, herding up all the new students.

“All students and staff must convene in the main hall.  All students and staff must convene in the main hall.” he repeated over and over again, ignoring all of the questions that were being thrown his way as he battled a path through the crowded corridor. 

Denver, being his usual pain in the ass self, tried to block his path but one intimidating glare from the older student sent him stumbling backwards into the wall.  “All students and staff must convene in the main hall.” and so it went on.

Seeing that there was no point in trying to fight against the tide of students, Jackson let himself be carried away on the wave of bodies down to the main hall.  He knew, anyway, that this was the only place that they were going to be getting any clues as to what the heck was happening around here.  And Jackson had a terrible sinking feeling that the questions that personally tensing his bones and muscles were about to be answered.

The main hall was old school.  This was one of the only traditionally decorated places in the academy.  There really were old brass sconces holding candles on the walls, not that they were lit now.  The bulbs on the large chandeliers hanging from the ceilings were standard electric but lit the place with a soft, almost romantic glow that wasn’t too harsh for their eyes.  Everywhere, there were oil paintings of graduated warriors, pictures honouring warriors who had died in the field, and in the centre hung a huge portrait of Bartholomew.

It wasn’t set out like an ordinary school, with benches or chairs for the students to sit on.  They were simply expected to be mature adults stand in an orderly manner. Which they did now, although there was a lot of fidgeting while they waited.  No one knew what was going on, not even the faculty.  It was a mystery, without a good vibe, which didn’t bode very well.

It seemed like everyone in the entire pl
ace was crowded into the hall. Everyone, including staff, trainees, workers.  There was a buzz of nervous chatter running through the crowd as they waited to find out what the emergency call was all about.  Clearly, it wasn’t a fire, seeing as they were still all inside the building.  That much they had worked out for themselves.

A hush came over the crowd as Kelton stepped through the main doors at the back of the cavernous room.  Everyone parted like the red sea to let him pass.  Even those who had known and fought alongside Kelton for decades had never seen such a fierce expression on his face or such obvious aggression in his walk.

Standing on the edge of the stage at the front of the hall, every single pair of eyes bore deeply into him.  And shuffling from one foot to the other as he waited impatiently, Jackson felt like he was going to throw up any minute now.  The bad feeling had enveloped him totally as he watched Kelton stand in sombre silence

“I have some very grave news for you all.”  Kelton’s voice boomed ominously, “Earlier today, I was informed of the tragic death of our beloved leader, Bartholomew.”

Silence.

Deathly, stunned silence.

Chapter Seven.

“Great changes are coming.  For our entire race. We must all be ready.”

It was like Kelton had run out of steam all of a sudden as he fell silent again.  With a little shake of his head, he jumped down off the stage and strode back out of the hall.  He was like a man on a mission, leaving them all reeling in his wake.  Each and every one of them wondered what was going to happen next.  This was huge.

Kelton just couldn’t
bear to talk about it anymore. He just couldn’t do it.  He couldn’t seem to get things straight in his own head. How was he supposed to talk coherently to all of those people?  He’d done his basic duty and informed them. That was all he could do right now.  He wasn’t a big talker at the best of times.  He was a goddamn fighter.  Right now, that was all he could focus on.  The fight ahead.