Chapter 9 #2
“I wasn’t ready for you to push me.” I scrambled to my feet and readied myself again. I had something to prove after everything Ghost said. His hand struck out, and I knocked it aside. “And I’d appreciate it if you answered my question.”
“I will. Patience, apprentice.” He shoved me from every angle, trying to knock me over until sweat dripped down my temples. I didn’t go down a second time.
Once he seemed satisfied with my ability to stay upright, he stepped behind me. I tensed, waiting for him to pull a knife again or wrap me up in his vicelike grip. I kept an eye on him over my shoulder.
“The first thing I’m going to teach you is how to get out of a hold.”
He threw an arm around my throat and the other around my torso and squeezed. I struggled to break free and tried to push backward to drive him away, but he was an immovable stone. His elbow squeezed around my throat and stars began to flutter across my vision. “I can’t breathe,” I wheezed.
He loosened his hold, and I dragged in a breath.
“This is the worst position to find yourself in. The moment you feel someone behind you, tuck your chin and lift your shoulders so they can’t hook your throat.
Once someone gets you in a chokehold like that, it’s difficult to get free, and a vampire will sink her teeth into you the moment she has her chance.
Ideally you hear her and turn before this happens.
The reason we’ve spent a few days wandering the woods in silence is so you start to listen.
You should be aware of quiet footsteps, hear the steady breathing of an approaching predator. ”
“I come from Lothleton, Viper, we listen for danger.”
“Good.” His arm moved to circle around my throat again, and I dropped my chin and shrugged.
His arm closed around me, but I could still breathe.
“If you get into this position, never lean back, always pull forward. The first thing you do is draw your dagger and stab whatever flesh you can, thigh or torso is probably the easiest, then twist away. The vampire will release you. If you can’t get to your weapon for whatever reason, you grab hold of my arm with one hand, pull and twist as hard and fast as you can.
If you have the strength to toss them over your shoulder to the ground, then do it.
Try it.” I leaned forward, shoved my hips back into him and attempted to throw him over me, but his weight didn’t shift. He was ready for it.
I jerked on his arm and twisted and managed to pull out of his grasp, then whipped around, fists up.
He smiled, and it was the first time I’d seen him look genuinely proud. My chest warmed with a pleasant heat.
After I was able to break through his hold several more times, we moved on.
“The next worst position you can end up in is flat on your back with the vampire, or anyone really, on top of you, trying to kill you. Lie down.”
I gulped but laid face up on the grass. The sun above seemed brighter and hotter than before.
The buzzing of bees and chirps of birds became clear.
Vander’s shadow shielded the light, and he dropped his hips on top of mine.
My own heart thudded in my ears. Vander and I had touched many times, and nothing had felt particularly intimate, but I’d never been face to face with him on top of me.
He lowered down, placing his hands on either side of my shoulders.
I beheld his eyes, as he said I was supposed to look leadership in the face.
His throat bobbed, and he dropped his gaze first. Training, we were training, nothing more.
His fingertip lightly grazed over the pounding pulse near my throat.
“This is a major artery and bleeds profusely. One thing we know about vampires is they always go for the neck. They won’t bite at random parts of your body.
” I was surprised how heavy he was. He reached back and took a blunted wooden stake from his belt and pushed it into my grip.
“We’re going to pretend this is a dagger.
The moment you are tossed onto your back, and the vampire is coming down at you, strike hard and fast.” He dropped forward, and I struck him hard in the chest with the stake.
He winced and jerked back, rubbing the spot on his chest, but he smiled. “Damn, we’re just practicing.”
“You said to strike hard and fast,” I said, breathless.
He stood and offered me his hand. He pulled me to my feet, then, without warning, shoved me.
My back hit the ground hard, my breath ripped from my lungs, and before I could even drag in another, he was on top of me.
I squeaked as he grabbed my wrists and slammed them on the sides of my head.
I pushed back, but he was an immovable mountain—unthinkably strong. I’d never felt anything like it.
I clenched my teeth and squealed, trying to buck free, but his thighs tightened around mine.
My heart hammered as he slowly lowered his half-open mouth to my neck.
Sharp teeth gently pressed to my throat and grazed my throbbing pulse.
His cool breath peppered my skin with goosebumps. “You’re dead,” he whispered.
My heartbeat whooshed in my ears, hammering like a drum.
Dead? I’d never been more alive. I should feel uncomfortable or at the very least guarded, but I was struck with a sense of wanting and that wasn’t the only thing that bothered me about this situation.
“You could have given me a little warning.”
He pulled back just enough to look me in the face. “A vampire won’t warn you. Again. And this time don’t let me grab your wrists. Strike before I get a hold on you.”
I spent the next couple hours being tossed on my ass, choked from behind, and slapping away his fists, which came much quicker than Morrow’s. His hands were a blur—difficult to track, but he never hit hard. He never once hurt me. The strikes were taps to show me he’d gotten through my defenses.
While I laid in the grass, arms spread wide as an eagle, trying to catch my breath, he tugged his shirt over his head. His taut back muscles glistened in the sunlight. Thick bold ebony letters spelled VIPER from one shoulder blade to another.
I pushed up on my elbow. “How did you get your codename?”
He rolled his neck and tossed his black assassin top to the ground. “Even as an apprentice I had quicker hands than my trainer or anyone. He kept saying I strike like a viper and so it stuck.”
“I have to agree. I think I blocked you maybe ten out of a hundred.”
He chuckled. “You’re quick, Aesira. You just need practice to anticipate where your opponent will hit.” He tapped the corner of his eye. “It’s here. Most look where they’re going to strike next even if it’s only a moment.”
“Who was your trainer? Have I seen him or her?”
“Nova.” He glanced away and shook his head. “He’s dead.”
“Oh...” My heart sank. I’d only known Vander a short time and his loss would affect me greatly already. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It happened during that raid to save the group of humans I told you about. By the time I’d found him, he was already gone. I carried him back across my shoulders.”
He sounded stoic as if he were talking about the sunny day and not the death of his former trainer. How many layers were in those walls he had built up?
I finally stood and brushed the grass and debris from my pants and top.
“My grandmother died when I was ten.” Her screams echoed in my mind, and I swallowed down the lump in my throat.
“A vampire.” I couldn’t bring myself to tell him it was my fault.
I feared he would look at me differently, judge me the way my mother had for a long time.
Mother never said it out loud, and I knew she still loved me, but afterwards she didn’t hug me quite as tightly as my siblings.
She stopped singing me to sleep and rarely braided my hair like she once had.
The resentment was there, even if consciously she didn’t want it to be.
I always kept in mind she lost her mother that day, but in some ways, I lost mine.
“Both my grandfathers were killed by vampires, too. My maternal grandmother, the one from the city, told me that a vampire broke into their house in Neverglade when my mother and aunt were young. She locked them in the bedroom and barricaded the door while my grandfather fought it off. Grandfather killed it, but he’d been bitten several times.
When the morning sun rose, he walked out into the light. ”
Vander’s eyes snapped to mine. A crease formed between his brows. “He... killed himself?”
“He couldn’t risk hurting his family.”
“I didn’t know people in Lothleton did that. Any human I’ve known who was bitten eventually joined the vampires in Nocturnus or became wildlings.”
“I’ve known several people from my village and others nearby that were bitten and walked into the sun.” I ran my sleeve across my brow to mop up the sweat. “What happens if an assassin is bitten?”
“Their partner puts a blade through their heart. It’s the honorable thing to do.”
“Partner?”
“When we go on missions each assassin has a designated partner. It’s so you always have someone to watch your back, and no one gets left behind.
But if one partner dies on a mission and the other is bitten, another assassin will step in.
Usually the mission Lead.” He gestured across the training grounds.
“Ghost was my partner for missions last year.”
I failed to not make an annoyed face when looking at her. He noticed too and frowned.
“Are you assigned a partner like an apprentice?”
“Usually. They prefer to have a higher-level assassin with a lower level for balance. Although sometimes partners choose each other if they work well together.”
I glanced at Dred and Morrow. I was thankful to know I couldn’t be assigned to Morrow since we were the same level. “Can you refuse a partner if you don’t get along?”
“Yes, but they’re typically aware of who you get along with.”
“Just can’t say no to apprentices,” I said, smirking and nudging his side. It still bothered me he didn’t initially want me as his apprentice, but there was no point in staying angry about it. He was trying now at least.
He glanced down at where my elbow had bumped his side, seemingly caught off guard, but smiled.
I didn’t think he was used to anyone touching him so casually.
Maybe I shouldn’t, but we’d spent the better part of the day wrestling, a little nudge didn’t seem out of the ordinary to me.
“Commander Locke doesn’t like to hear ‘no’ from his assassins in general. Neither does Commander Ace.”
“I know you’d rather have Morrow—”
“No, I wouldn’t,” he said quickly, firmly.
“In some ways the apprentices from Lothleton are easier to train. You don’t have the arrogance and carelessness that being safe inside the walls brings.
You have first-hand knowledge of vampires that those from Nighthaven don’t.
They read about them in books, but most of the apprentices here have never seen a vampire, let alone faced one. ”
I smiled. “I never thought about it that way.”
“You can be a great assassin, Aesira. You just have to want to be. You have to forget about the old you that is afraid of vampires and spent her life running, and mold yourself into the woman that terrifies them.”
“I want that.” But it was difficult to imagine.
He half smiled. “My uncle gave me that speech once. ‘Forget about books and your old life, Vander. You can’t kill a vampire with a book. Become so terrifying that even your name makes the vampires run in the other direction.’”
“I think I’d like your uncle.”
“You’ve met.”
“Commander Locke?” I guessed.
He nodded. “My father’s brother. My mother was as mad as a hornet when I became an assassin.
” He shook his head, lost in a thought I wasn’t privy to.
“She and my father blame me and Commander Locke for...” He cleared his throat.
“It doesn’t matter. The game. I need to tell you about the game.
There are two every year for apprentices, and the Commanders will judge how you perform.
One game at the end of summer and one at the end of winter. ”
His further explanation of the game was brief, but he made it clear that I couldn’t embarrass him, and he expected me to do well during the tasks even if I was new to all this.
We’d have the next couple weeks to prepare for it.
Just as he finished telling me how the teams would be chosen, someone snickered behind us.
I found Morrow and his trainer side by side.
Morrow had a stupid grin on his face as he leaned over to Dred and whispered something.
They both laughed, keeping their eyes on us.
“What are you laughing at?” I blurted out, then slammed my teeth together.
Vander’s jaw muscles feathered, and he gave me the slightest shake of his head as if to say Not now.
Dred stopped and twisted on his heel to face us. “We were just commenting on how interesting it was watching you two train. Viper, you spent a lot of time mounting her. Do you two share a bed as well as a room?”
Morrow’s dark eyes darted to mine. “You won’t rank faster by sucking his cock, loth.”
Dred let out a low laugh. “That was harsh, Beast.”
I gasped at the vulgarity he spewed, and my cheeks flamed. No one had ever spoken to me or about me that way. I wasn’t a complete prude, I’d heard the men in the longhouse say worse over a pint of ale, but never to or about me. I opened my mouth but couldn’t even find words to retort.
“Don’t speak to her like that. And you know better than to make those accusations, Dred,” Vander snapped. “Only one of us has ever crossed that line with their apprentice, and it wasn’t me.”
“That may be true,” Dred lifted a shoulder, “but have you told your girl here what happened to your last two apprentices?”
Vander went very still, even stopped breathing.
“I’d call it bad luck, but I think it’s incompetence on your part.” Dred sneered.
A palpable rage rolled off Vander. His hands trembled at his sides, and a shadow seemed to pass over his face, like the grim reaper himself had possessed him.
I inched back, afraid of what he might do.
.. But I also didn’t want him to do something he’d regret over a petty exchange with Dred and Morrow.
“One day I’ll be a better assassin than both of you and it will be because of him.” I lifted my chin and met Dred’s harsh stare. Vander was my trainer, and he had my loyalty. That meant here and in vampire land.
“When vampires don’t crave blood you’ll be better than me.” Dred jerked his head left and Morrow followed him. “See you both at the game soon. It should be fun.”
Vander snatched his shirt off the ground and shoved it on.
“Ghost, Falcon, Scout,” he shouted their names like a command. “We’re leaving.” He turned to me with that dark fury still simmering in his face. “Mask on.”