Page 1

Act One

ChapterOne

KATERINA ELI

Sleep was supposed to be peaceful, but with my heartbeat pounding in my ears and my sweaty body trapped to the bed, I would have preferred suffering another sleepless night than this shit.

Katerina.

Every night it grew harder to regain control over myself. My voice was silent while my thoughts floated around but held no power. The sensations at my fingertips were slowly trickling back, but they still vibrated with the same numbness that took over whenever I tried to sleep.

Wheneverherhold got to me.

And when it thinned, I sprinted to the one place I couldn’t be contained.

“Fuck this.”

My body tensed at the icy temperature of the indoor pool. But it was quick to embrace me and swallow my weight. I drifted as my thoughts anchored me to the water.

September was slowly approaching, and the holidays were soon to follow. My last guardian post was months ago. Since then, I’ve been waiting to be matched to a new posting. It was understandable— the Company of Essential Guardianship was booming in business, old guardians like me shadowed by the new, improved ones.

It was only a few years ago that the CEG became a recognized organization, funded by both the Vampire Ministry and the Human Intergovernmental Bureau. When I first started, the company was only an idea with trial and error, waiting for the right moment to spark.

Guardians didn’t even have a title back then and were seen as normal bodyguards. Until tensions continued to rise between both governments, and both species needed something to protect them from each other. Someone with the potential to guard anyone during difficult times.

From then on, the CEG was gifted an appropriate name, and guardians not only had a title but full employment. We had research facilities I never thought could exist, allowing the company to improve our services to reassure safety in this new world. One that allowed humans and vampires to co-exist.

And here I was, sitting at the bottom of a pool, jobless.

It wasn’t by choice. I just wasn’t getting matched to one.

The thought forced my body into the fresh air. I hadn’t noticed how long I was down there, but nearby footsteps forced me out of the water. After finishing in the locker room, I grabbed my duffle bag and headed into the dimmed, gray hallways outside the pool floor. I turned toward the same route I always took to my dormitory, up the backstairs, and exited onto my floor, where my room lay empty.

Our rooms were meant to be temporary, but we had the choice to decorate. I never found the need to. Decorating meant staying because of comfort, and I only found it in the water— the one place that always accepted me when I needed a momentary escape.

The room also had a way of stirring up faint memories. The doctors had explained that the use of long-term medication caused my shitty memory. But they never erased the surge of hollow feelings that boiled in my chest.

I couldn’t stand being here. Any chance I had to leave, I took it.

The cafeteria was the central hub for the latest gossip and information from the new world. Vampires had been part of fiction for millenniums and transformed into nonfiction overnight. It was an exaggeration, of course, since vampires had fully surfaced a century ago, but humans never liked accepting the world’s true existence. Not even now as guardians, the majority half-human, were constantly hired to protect them.

I squeezed myself toward everyone’s focus. The screens among the pillars displayed the latest revelation, the right side focusing on the Bureau while the left aired the Vampire Ministry’s response. The topic never changed.

Humans strived to repeal the Two-Species Treaty, while vampires rationalized possible outcomes to keep the peace. It always ended with talks of war.

No wonder the CEG was so successful.

The intercoms screeched, and the screens dimmed, letters forming and exhibiting my name.

“Katerina Eli, please report to the main building.”

I roamed through the cafeteria. The halls grew brighter the farther I walked, the sun finally melting my icy skin while I exited the guardian quarters and followed the path to the main building. It was the one in charge of the more technical jobs —call centers, financing, overall customer service— and held the offices of the main four, our bosses.

The main four consisted of the founder, and his three sons, all of whom were in a constant battle over who would take the seat after their dad stepped down. Although both governments were large investors and had some jurisdiction, the shots were still called by the founder; primarily, that one of the oldest should inherit the company. Guardians, on the other hand, were pushing for the youngest, Lace Fernandez.

Lace stood before the side entrance, his body towering like my cousin as I neared, a small smile decorating his face. While guardians were allowed to roam the premises, I tried not to. Once I stepped outside, it was hard to go back in. After water, the sun’s warmth was the second most comforting element on my skin.

He studied me with an attentive gaze as I tilted my head, closing my eyes to bask in the sun’s rays. I could smell traces of his scent, fresh like laundry detergent but not strong enough to send me sneezing. “You know, if you wanted to tan, you could have just come to me.”