Page 20

"Do you have a spare stake?" I asked.

Viggo gave me a look.

That translated to No, no he did not.

On the wall behind us was the emergency escape plan with a map of the first level.

I pulled it off of the wall and showed Viggo the route I took.

Viggo looked down at me. "That is how you were able to elude the roaming patrol," he commented.

I smiled wide.

"Not funny," he scolded.

It was a difference of opinions we'd continue to have.

Viggo pointed out which route he took, then the one we should take, not the same as I took to get here, and we'd pass by multiple exit points this time. I think he wanted to check them to see if they were propped open...

At least that's what I would do.

As we navigated through the hallways, securing doors that had been propped open, and making sure they couldn't be opened from the inside or outside, I couldn't help but think that this was the exact type of scenario I was arguing with Master Dade about.

There are no boundaries and no rules in the real world.

If we come across an Upír, we will have to engage it and one of us will die, I just hope it's the Upír and not us.

When we got to the stairs, Viggo motioned for me to stop. He pulled a mala-styled jade bracelet off of his wrist and slipped it around mine.

"This belonged to l'arrière-grand-père de ma mère," he explained.

I looked at it.

It belonged to his mother's great-grandfather?!

It didn't look that old.

"Pull on the Guru bead and an unbreakable silver garrote will pull out. Wrap it around a Garoul, Upír, or Vrykolakas and you can cleanly sever their head or limbs with very little effort. It is blessed and enchanted, and very rare. Do you understand?" Viggo said, his tone level.

I looked from the bracelet and then met his green eyes. "Yes."

"If something happens and you can get away, run. You have to run no matter what. Do not try to be a hero," Viggo said before starting up the stairs, leaving no room for discussion.

Stupid, overbearing Vampire! I'm a Sentinel-in-training, I should be going in front since you are a Prince!

Nervous, I fiddled with the mala, pulling the Guru bead out to see how far the silver thread could go, and was surprised to find it went farther than I could extend my arms. I had never seen anything like it before, it was beautiful but deadly, and not something allowed at the Academy.

I wonder how many lives the delicate silver garrote has claimed.

As we rounded the next set of stairs leading to the third floor, our progression was stopped.

Two Upír stood there smiling, their fangs elongating from their mouths, their black irises enlarging to cover most of the white of the sclera, and they were teeming with hatred. Each was dressed head to toe in black tactical attire and boots, which wasn't normal from my basic understanding of Upír.

Blood was all an Upír wanted, but they wanted the blood of those practicing Thaumaturgy the most. It was much sweeter on the tongue, according to our studies, and invoked strength in them, even if temporary, and a euphoric high that was comparable to a Devilry awakening of the mind.

"Give us the girl and you may live," one of them snarled.

Protectively Viggo stepped in front of me, to completely block their view of me. "You will not touch her," he warned.

"We'll see about that, Hemoglobe," the upír snarled before throwing himself at us.

"Run!" Viggo yelled, shoving me down the stairs in the same fluid movement.

I didn't want to, but I was barefooted and Viggo had already staked the upír that had thrown himself at him, and the other was retreating up the stairs away from the hulking Vampire giving chase.

Hastily I ran down the stairs, and right into the waiting arms of another snarling Upír.

"Hello, Princess," she mused, wrapping one arm around me.

Her cold arm constricted around my waist, pinning my arms to my sides.

She pulled her fangs up the length of my neck, teasingly, and it burned.

I could feel blood rolling down my neck, but she didn't bite or lick it.

The upír was playing with her food.

"You want to become one of us, don't you, Princess?" she purred in my ear before caressing it with the tip of her tongue then shivered.

"I will take insurmountable pleasure in killing you," I said before she tightened the hold she had on me.

She chuckled, darkly. "You think so, do you?" she mused, grabbing a handful of my hair and jerked my head to the side, exposing my neck to her even more. "You are nothing... Yet. But Master will resolve that, and soon. He is tired of waiting and is ready to play. Now be a good little girl otherwise you will force my hand and I will have to make it needlessly painful."

With said warning, she tightened the handful of hair she had to agonizing levels, trying to get me to scream.

But the joke was her.

I've been ranked number one in all of the combat programs at the Academy since my first year, and I grew up training in temples across the world with various Masters before I could walk.

This was nothing compared to my childhood and the training my brother and I were subjected to.

I started laughing, a choked, raspy unhealthy sound, but the sentiment was made rather clear.

"I'm not a Vampire, Stupid," I said. "You can't turn me into one of you because I'm not the Light version of you! And they say education is wasted on those with short life spans."

She gave me a look before licking my neck, over the wounds she just made with her fangs, and I was certain this was the end.

But she didn't sink her fangs into my flesh.

Instead, she pulled away and looked at me, making a face as if my blood tasted gross. "Spike, are you sure this is the right brat?" she called out. "She isn't right in the head and I don't smell or taste any Thaumaturgy in her blood. Her blood tastes weird like it's chalky for some reason."

Spike's only response was a grunt before the smell of smoldering embers and sulfur filled the air.

I laughed even harder; Viggo got another one.

"What is so funny, Princess?" she asked, confused by my anything-but-normal actions.

"Spike is not available right now," I informed her. "But if you'd like to leave a message you will require a good old-fashioned Ouija Board."

"Huh?" she asked, looking up to where the others were then snarled. "Impossible. He is a Prince! They are not capable of such combat. This is a trick, a mirroring, isn't it?!" she demanded, shoving my head forward as if looking for something.

"No, you just picked the wrong kids to mess with," I said before slamming my head back into her face and breaking her nose.

The second assault with my head made contact with her shattered nose again and knocked her head back with such force that she lost her hold on my hair.

I pulled us towards the wall and then ran up it, walking up the vertical surface, before flipping up and over her, breaking the hold she had on my waist.

In the same movement, I pulled on the guru bead, pulling the silver garrote out and wrapped it around her neck, twisting in the air as I went, then pulled as hard as I could, bending over the metal safety railing for leverage.

The upír screamed, but it was quickly choked out by a torrent of darkened blood as the enchanted silver thread cut through her neck, sheering her head from her body. Her head bounced off of my shoulder before falling, bouncing off of the railings on the lower levels as it fell to the ground below, reminding me of a ping pong ball.

Ilooked from her head that landed on the floor below before burning away toembers to her body. "Huh, I guess nine meters doesn't apply to Upír because oftheir slower system," I commented as her body dropped to its knees beforefalling over, darkened blood squirting from the stump her neck had become. "Goodto know."