Chapter 30
THIRTY
Sloan
“Are you sure we should be outside the city?” Babs looked back at the walls of Azra as they grew smaller and smaller in the distance. “I know the New Hope Army is still two days away, but still.”
“We’ll be fine.” Sloan walked in the lead of her vampire unit made of four. “We can use the time we have left to train, become comfortable with your new abilities, and above all, hunt.”
“Hunt?” Pia repeated the word as if she had never heard it before. “You mean drink the blood of animals?”
“If you haven’t felt the urge yet, you will soon,” Sloan said without room for question.
“I’d rather you feed now and understand what it feels like before the battle starts.
Trust me, I’m speaking from experience. The last thing you want on your conscience is tearing apart someone on the battlefield and feeding on a person like he’s a juice box. ”
Talking about it made Sloan think back to the fight at Term when she had lost control of her desire to feed and cost a young soldier his life. She could still see his pale eyes, the way she drank his blood and stole the very life from him drink by drink would haunt her forever.
“I am feeling a little thirsty, now that you mention it.” Harrison massaged his throat. “Hey, these new uniforms Edison fashioned are awesome, by the way. Remind me to thank him once we get back.”
Sloan looked down at her own uniform. Edison and Elwood had been busy at work not only helping Jaxon through his transition, but also creating a new kind of Azra guard uniform that felt amazing.
Much like the under-armor Sasha wore, their uniforms were a skin-tight suit of closely linked iron scales that looked like dragon scales. Over it lay a heavier layer of steel plates placed on their shoulders, shins, forearms, and chest, overlaid by a white tunic with a golden bat in the middle.
Sloan flexed her muscles under the armor, amazed by how the tiny, steel scales stretched and allowed her to move in any way she desired.
“We should test this armor out first, though, right?” Doyle knocked with a closed fist on his steel armor. “I mean, just to be sure?”
Sloan unsheathed her mage sword. She didn’t turn on the switch that would channel the mage power into the blade, thus heating the weapon. For all intents and purposes it was only a sword at the moment.
“Shall we give it a try?” Sloan sliced the air between herself and her former lieutenant. “If you’re not too scared, I mean.”
“Let’s do it.” Doyle squared his stance and pushed out his chest. “Worst case scenario, my healing factor kicks in. I mean, if you do puncture the armor … right?”
“We’ll see.” Sloan started a light jog toward Doyle with her sword out in front of her.
“Wait a minute, what does ‘we’ll see’ mean?” A hint of panic laced Doyle’s words. He shifted his stance, looking for anyone else to help. “I thought for sure we heal. Maybe this isn’t such a good idea!”
Sloan kept her slash vertical across Doyle’s breastplate. Sparks accompanied the stroke that sent tremors into her arm.
Everyone, including Doyle, looked on, wide-eyed. The blow had cut through the white tunic, but left no more than a thin line across his dark steel breastplate.
A collective sigh escaped the throats of Sloan’s squad.
“Well, I guess that settles that.” Sloan sheathed her blade into the brown leather sheath that rested on her right hip. “We’ll begin with strength and speed training, and then end with our first hunt.”
The sea breeze did its best to comfort the group of warriors, but the sun’s heat prevailed as they began their drills.
Sloan walked the group over to an outcropping of trees mixed with boulders and stones.
The location was just within sight of Azra’s walls to the left of the main road.
Sloan studied the four members of her company still coming to grips that they were all vampires now and soon would find themselves in a war with their own kind.
“You’re all stronger now than you know,” Sloan addressed them as they stood in a rigid line in front of her. “You won’t have the luxury of a learning curve. You’ll have to adapt on the fly and learn as you go. We’re two days away from an all-out war. Let’s make the best out of those days.”
Sloan looked into the small, forested area behind her, eyeing a particularly large boulder. It came up to her waist and sat twice as wide. It had to weigh more than three hundred pounds.
“Harrison.” Sloan motioned to the rock with her right hand. “I want you to lift that over your head. And give me fifty squats.”
Harrison moved to obey, jaw set, eyes determined. Sloan realized doubt was already telling him what he could and couldn’t do. Although his training as a soldier in the New Hope army curbed any chance of him arguing a direct order, he was already doubting himself.
“Don’t think you can.” Sloan walked up beside Harrison as he squatted down next to the rock. “Know you can, and get it done.”
Harrison gave her a rough nod. His eyes never left the boulder. He squatted down low, then jammed his fingers into the nonexistent space between the boulder and the dirt ground.
Harrison was a large man, over six feet tall and outweighing Sloan by a good hundred pounds of muscle. Still, the slate gray stone looked like it would be impossible to move, even to a vampire his size.
Harrison let out a huge exhale of air as he stood up from his squatting position. The stone came off the ground. Harrison’s eyes were huge as he realized what he had done.
“Come on!” Pia shouted her encouragement with her two other squad members. “Over your head! Don’t stop now!”
“You can do it!” Babs shouted.
Harrison threw the boulder up. He caught the base of the stone and lifted it over his head, despite his own amazement. The next moment he began doing the required number of squats.
“You’re all capable of this and so much more, now that you have increased strength. The Vampire Project was created to usher in the birth of super soldiers. That’s what we are now.” Sloan motioned to the boulders strewn around the landscape. “Let’s get to work.”
The rest of the day was spent in strength and conditioning drills.
The program was more to make sure the new vampires knew what they could now do, as opposed to actually trying to build muscle or speed.
The fight was on the horizon. There was no time to teach them new techniques, only time to teach them how to use their upgraded bodies.
Sprints followed the weight lifting program, and finally the hunt.
During their day outside the Azra walls, Sloan had spotted wildlife in the area consisting of squirrels, rabbits, and the occasional deer print.
Although taking the lives of animals wasn’t on the top of Sloan’s to-do list, she understood the necessity.
They would use the blood for nourishment, then take the rest of the animals back to Azra to be used as food and the pelts for warmth for the rest of the city.
“So how are we going to do this?” Doyle sided up next to Sloan. “Just grab them and bite in?”
“I guess so.” Sloan shrugged. There was no reason to lie to her squad now. They knew she had never fed from an animal before. “Let’s make their deaths quick. Come on, let’s get this over with.”
Sloan penetrated the forest ahead of the rest of her squad.
Already she saw a squirrel to her left. Before she could give any thought to her actions, instinct took over.
Sloan grabbed a lower rung of the tree and vaulted skyward, then she grabbed the animal, which was actually larger than she thought.
From head to tail, it was as long as her arm.
Sloan snapped its neck and bit into the meaty part as she landed back on the ground. Her canines did her bidding, lengthening at the same time her vision turned red.
The feeling that came with the blood was one of pure bliss, as if life itself poured down her throat. All around, her squad was following her lead; some had disappeared, tracking their prey, while others, like Babs, were still in her line of sight a dozen yards to her right.
Babs had also caught a brown squirrel and was experiencing for the first time how important blood could be to them. Sloan thought of how much time they had left to train. The sun was already low in the sky. Maybe she could get one more drill out of them before the day ended.
“Once you’ve caught?—”
SNAP!
Sloan spun to her right as two figures joined her party in the woods. One was Leah Eckert, the other a well-dressed man she had never seen.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your little feeding frenzy”—Leah smiled at Sloan—“but I was wondering if you’d just like to die now and get it over with.”