Descended by Blood (13 page)

“One thing you need to be aware of is to avoid Zack,” Mirko said, eyes cast at me in the mirror.

“Why’s that?” Kaitlynn asked.

“Yeah, and who’s he?” That was all I needed; more people to avoid.

“He’s a Pijawika,” Mirko said. I scrunched my face. “But he’s a nobody. He doesn’t have any power or pull, but he is a creep. He knows not to do anything when I’m around because I’ll kill him, but he might be stupid enough to try something with one of you girls while I’m not there. Just don’t go anywhere by yourselves.”

“Make sure you point out who this Zack is,” Jaren said.

We pulled up to a security gate with a small building on the side of the road. The man standing post was dressed in military attire and held a rifle of some kind. “Who are your guests, Mirko?” the guy asked, leaning over to see inside the vehicle.

“They’re part of an assignment, and they’ll be staying here for a while.” Mirko used a tone that warranted no questions should be asked.

The guard’s forehead creased.

“I take responsibility for them,” Mirko snapped.

The guard straightened his spine, but he went inside the building and released the gates. Mirko rolled up the window and drove through the opening. “You should be safe here, but don’t go off saying anything about being a melez.”

“A what?”

“A melez. A half-breed. A hybrid. Don’t go spouting off that you have Pijawikan and human blood.”

I snorted. “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that.” I preferred to think of myself as human. It was everybody else who wouldn’t let me forget about the vampire side. And even better—they had a special name for what I was.

The Base consisted of only a couple of buildings. It looked similar to what I would assume any other military base would look like, but on a smaller scale. All of the buildings were angular, symmetrical, and nondescript. Mirko steered the truck between a couple of gray buildings and parked.

Ace was out first, striding to the back to unload our bags. “You guys are bunking in the same barracks we do. This will make it easier for us to keep tabs on you.”

I followed behind Kaitlynn. My knee felt better, but it remained stiff. I hoped if I moved around on it, it would be good as new, thanks to my new super-healing.

Jaren shut the truck’s back door and trailed behind us into the building. The industrial-grade carpet running along the hallway was a bland mixture of light and dark grays dulled from years of use. The light streamed down from the ceiling in rows of long light bulbs that no longer had covers over their fixtures.

Mirko led us down the hall and up a flight of stairs. “This is the girls’ bathroom over here,” he said, pointing to the hall down the right. “And the boys’ bathroom is the same, but on the other end of the hall.”

“Wait. We have to share? Like in college dorms?” Kaitlynn asked. She liked to take her time getting ready in the mornings. I bet she was now second-guessing her decision to come with me.

“There are some rooms that have their own bathrooms, but those are for the higher-ups. Like me.” Mirko grinned.

“And me,” Ace said.

“Well, why can’t we have your rooms, and you take ours?” Kaitlynn asked.

“Because you’re not higher-ups. Your bathroom is kept clean so you should be fine. And there are only a few girls that stay in this building, so sharing won’t be much of a problem, anyway.”

Ace turned over his shoulder, “You can use my bathroom if you’d like.” The look he gave her suggested the offer involved a lot more.

Kaitlynn smiled. “Thanks, but I have a boyfriend. I’ll stick with the communal.”

Ace shrugged and then stopped in front of a large oak door and dropped the bags. He took out a key, slid it in the lock, and the door creaked open.

“It’s not the Ritz Carlton, but you’ll do just fine with it,” Mirko said.

The room had a set of bunk beds and twin computer desks. A small window sat between the beds and the desks, and I was grateful for the natural light.

“This’ll work,” I told Kaitlynn, setting my bags on the top bunk.

She opened the door to the closet and noticed that it ran the length of the room, save for the area of the door.

“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” she said to Ace. He set her bags down on the bottom bed.

Mirko turned to Jaren. “You’ll have the single across the hall.” He pulled out a set of keys, took one off the key ring, and handed it to Jaren. Mirko spun around to me, a devious grin molding his lips. “We start training in the morning.”

“Yippy,” I said, rolling my eyes.

Mirko smirked harder. I had a feeling he was going to enjoy torturing me with whatever this “training” involved.

The guys lined up on their way out of our room and over to Jaren’s. I stood against the door frame and watched Jaren open his door.

A tall blond girl in tight, black leather came strutting over to him. “Oh, looky here! What’s your name, suga’?” she said, her accent sultry and southern. Not what I would have expected based on her get-up.

I perked up, away from the door frame. Her attention locked on Jaren. He looked at me surprised, and then turned back to the girl, his jaw hanging slightly open.

“I’m Jaren,” he said, and I could hear the excitement and interest in his voice.

Anger coursed through me, hot as melted steel. I knew this girl was a vampire. And that he was attracted to her. This was wrong on so many levels. Something inside of me took over, and I stepped out into the hall.

“Hi, I’m Brooke.” I pointed between Jaren and me. “We came here together.” I couldn’t exactly say that we were together, so that had to suffice.

Mirko looked from me, to Jaren, to the girl, and then back to me. He was clearly amused by the situation.

“Do tell,” she said and set her focus back on Jaren. “I’m Holly Anne.” She beamed, showing perfectly straight, white teeth, and offered her delicate hand to Jaren.

Oh, she did not expect him to kiss her hand. I twitched, on the verge of smacking it back, when Kaitlynn came around me, and grabbed Holly Anne’s hand, shaking it. “And I’m Kaitlynn. Nice to meet you, Holly Anne. Now if you don’t mind, we’ve had a long day and would like to get settled in. I’m sure there will be plenty of time tomorrow to do the whole meet-and-greet thing.”

Holly Anne slid her hand out of Kaitlynn’s grasp as if it were stuck in a pile of goo, a perfect southern smile plastered on her face the whole time. She opened her mouth, preparing to speak. I lifted my top lip in warning.

“We’ll introduce you tomorrow,” Mirko cut in, ebbing the fire that was sure to catch.

Holly Anne’s smiling face flexed.

“I don’t want to see you down this hall again tonight. Get me?” Mirko asked.

She closed her mouth, angled a genuine smile at Jaren, and then turned around, swishing her hair as she did, and strutted down the hall the way she came.

Kaitlynn relaxed her shoulders.

My eyes held daggers as they met Jaren’s, and I let all the repugnance I felt flow through me and gather in the muscles of my face. As soon as I felt my message had been delivered, loud and clear, I turned my back on him and marched to my room.

If he thought he could shun me because my blood contained only half of what hers did and then get all excited like a dog in heat when she came around, he had another thing coming. And if little Ms. Georgia wanted to play games with me, I would knock her tiara off her head so fast, she’d get whiplash.

I threw the door shut behind me in case anyone still had any doubt of what kind of a mood I was in.

14

I’ll Kill ’Em

I padded out of the bathroom the next morning to find Mirko propped up against the wall outside our door.

“I love the multicultural thing you have going on there,” Mirko said pointing to the top of his head, indicating the towel I had wrapped around mine. “It’s sexy.”

“Oh, shut up.” I pushed him aside so Kaitlynn and I could get into our room. “Just give me a few minutes to get dressed.”

Mirko followed behind me into the room.

“No,” I squealed. “You need to wait
outside
!” I pushed his chest, and shut and locked the door behind him.

“He’s bad,” Kaitlynn said, shaking her head.

I could hear his troublemaker’s laughter through the door. “One of these days, Slatki, it’ll be harder for you to push me out. And then one of these days, you won’t even want to push me out.”

Kaitlynn snorted, and I rolled my eyes. I dressed in the outfit I thought would be the most flexible and giving of the clothes I had packed. I had a pair of sweats and a pair of yoga pants, but I decided to go with the sweats. That ought to give Mirko less ammunition against me.

When Kaitlynn was ready, I pulled open the door. Mirko stood on the other side with his signature grin. “I was hoping you’d changed your mind about me not watching you change your clothes. But alas, here you are, dressed in your frumpies.”

I laughed, my forehead creasing in amusement. “And your ribbed tank is so darn classy. You could take me to prom in that for sure.”

“Ah. You’d like me to take you to prom, huh? I could arrange that.”

I blanched. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to make it to prom now. All the things I had dreamed and hoped for would never be the same. And if I did make it out of this in one piece, would I even be able to go back to the same school? My mom would probably make us move again, so there went my life as I knew it.

“That bad?” Mirko said. He must’ve noticed the change in my demeanor.

“Let’s get this over with.” I stole a quick, regretful glance at Jaren’s door across the hall and then swept my hand out for Mirko to lead me.

* * *

Mirko’s idea of training was more like giving me a beatdown for fun. He was fast and could pack a punch. He knew all of the spots that hurt the body the most. The kidney, the throat, the temple, the back of my knees.

“You’ll learn quicker once you’ve experienced it,” Mirko said, kicking me on the meaty part of my forearm with his hard shin. “Keep your hands up.”

I jumped back and held my arm close to my chest. “That hurt. You’re just trying to justify beating me.”

He grinned and bounced toward me.

I made sure to keep my hands up and noticed my focus increased with the pain in my arm. I was sure there were other ways he could have taught me those things, and I promised myself once I got strong and fast enough, I would make him pay for each one of my bruises.

Mirko bobbed in for a low jab, and I tried to connect my fist with his temple. He was too fast and danced back before I could touch him.

“Can we be done yet? I’m tired, and I’d like to do something else today other than collect bruises.”

“Sure. Let’s do some cool-down work, and then you can have the rest of the day.”

I exhaled on a relieved breath. I couldn’t handle one more attack or dodge. “When do we work with weapons?” Mirko had only talked about hand-to-hand combat and how things would change when I grew to be more advanced.

Mirko laughed. “We won’t. We only fight with our hands. Weapons are made for the weak. If you can’t win in a fair fight with your hands, then you don’t deserve to live.”

My jaw dropped. “That’s terrible. What happens if you’re not fighting a fair fight, and the other person is better than you? Then what?”

“You’d better hope that never happens, or if it does, you’d better hope someone more skilled than you is there to defend you.”

We were working out our last stretches when Kaitlynn and Ace walked into the gym. “Oh, good,” Kaitlynn said. “I was just coming to get you for some food.”

“Oh, I love you. I’m starving.”

I tied the laces on my sneakers and stood up. I couldn’t care less what Mirko did with the rest of his day, so I didn’t ask him. Ace remained in the gym when Kaitlynn and I left.

“Have you seen Jaren today?” I asked Kaitlynn as soon as I figured we were out of earshot. Way out of earshot.

“Yeah, I heard him when he came out of his room this morning, so I grabbed Ace, and I followed him.”

“You sneaky little minx!” We snickered. “What’d you find out?”

“He didn’t really do anything that interesting. He went to this little cafeteria they have. They call it the mess hall, same as they do in the army.”

“Weird.”

“I know. It’s funny, but the food smells good.”

“Did you see Holly Anne?” We strolled into the mess hall, and my stomach growled. Something smelled delicious.

“Yeah. When I came back, she was hovering in the hall a little ways down from our rooms. She was waiting for Jaren to get back, no doubt.”

I clenched my jaw. “I hate females. You’re about the only one I can stand right now.”

“Aw, thanks,” she said, kissing the air.

“So, did she find Jaren?” I grabbed a tray and started to fill it. An apple, some garlic bread, and spaghetti. That’s what smelled so good.

“She didn’t when I was on watch, but who knows now. Oh, and that’s Zack.” She pointed to a guy across the room. His back was to us, but he had dark hair. It was thin and scraggly from what I could see of him.

As if our looking alerted him that we were also talking about him, he turned back in his chair, an eerie glint in his eye. His cheeks sunk in a little, and his skin held a five o’clock shadow, from days ago, that suggested he wasn’t friends with grooming. A slow, ominous smile spread across his lips.

I flashed him a wobbly smile in return and moved over to the drinks. “Can we eat this in our room?”

“I dunno, but we are.” Kaitlynn snatched up napkins before we left.

We kept our heads down and hustled to our room.

“Yeah, thanks for the heads-up on Zack, Mirko,” I said to Kaitlynn as she shut the door behind her and locked it.

“He’s for sure a creeper. He didn’t freak me out like that when I was with Ace, so we need to be careful around here.”

I sighed and took a bite of my spaghetti. “Mmmmh. This is good.”

She laughed and took a bite. “What I don’t understand,” she paused for a moment to finish chewing, “is why they have a mess hall in the first place. Don’t they all eat blood?”

“Ew. Thanks,” I said, not interested in my spaghetti anymore. “There are humans here, so that would explain why they need the food.”