Page 222 of A University of Betrayal

Alpha

Jordan Beats

I punched and kicked the punching bag like it was my attacker. My heels dug so deep into the fabric-filled bag that the side tore open and the contents – made up of shreds of fabric – emptied out sluggishly. This was my tenth. And I had never felt so strong in my life. A new energy seemed to flood through me, just waiting to finish something or someone off.

The problem was that I’d been feeling like this ever since I’d drunk from Mady.

“You’re not supposed to destroy them, they’re supposed to fly...”

“What’s the point?” I snapped impatiently at my brother.

He, on the other hand, was the most patient person I had ever met. The first thing we didn’t seem to have in common.

We were both in the park behind the Receptum, where I had hung my punching bag from one of the oak trees.

“The point is,” he came closer and gently placed his hands on my raised fists, with which I had actually wanted to finish off the punching bag for good. “...that you learn to control yourself. Control is the most important thing a Ruisangor should master. And you need control in order to prevent something like what happened earlier.”

I snorted in frustration and lowered my fists.

Already, I was feeling that thirst again. Whenever I trained with Miles, I got thirsty faster. Miles said it was because I was using up my energy.

But I didn’t feel any of that right now.

The boxing training reminded me of Sacramento and now elicited the anger that I had wanted to get rid of when I had come to this town. But it wasn’t that easy. I was someone completely different now. The Larissa from Sacramento now seemed very unfamiliar to me. The new one had hurt a friend, almost killed her. I could count myself lucky that she was still alive.

Adrian hadtaken careof her. Whatever that meant... I would text her, but I wasn’t allowed to see her again until I could control myself better, and Miles had told me that could take months.

How was I supposed to leave Mady alone formonths?

I had to work on my thirst control. As quickly as possible.

Angry with myself, I kicked the bag again.

“I think that’s enough for today.”

“What?No!”I looked at Miles in disbelief, who was once again wearing nothing but his black jogging pants and tracksuit jacket, his hair in a short man bun – which accentuated his undercut –, holding one of the knives he’d been wielding until a moment ago.

He worked out every morning, not as hard as Adrian, whojoggedin the morning and spent his evenings downstairs in the gym, but he worked out.

My training sessions with Miles at the weekend – compared to the training of everyone else here – seemed like a joke. I just learned the bare minimum. And that wasn’t nearly enough.

“Don’t be so naive. I can see you’re hungry again.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Why don’t we keep training? I don’t feel exhausted.”

“You won’t feel exhausted. How many times do you want me to tell you?” he said, more amused than lecturing.

He seemed to be repressing what had happened.

“Then why don’t I take advantage of it?”

“What’s the rush? You’ve got centuries, if not millennia...”

Miles didn’t understand. How could he? I hadn’t told him.

“In case you haven’t noticed, Adrian is making fun of me. And as long as I’m weak, that’s not going to change.”

It was hard for me to admit this to him, but even Bastien must have figured out by now that Adrian was a huge pain in my ass, especially when I complained to Camille about his cool attitude.