The Scarlet Dagger (The Red Sector Chronicles, #1) (9 page)

He started back up the stairs, and this time I followed.

At about the fourth landing, we stepped through a door that read
4: Training Academy
. I could feel Aden’s precaution ease up as he decided I wasn’t going to bolt for it, and I took the opportunity to pepper our conversation with questions about the facility, trying to collect as much information as I could. Each answer of his was vague, as I could have probably figured it out for myself by simply observing my surroundings.

“
The academy level serves as the training grounds for our soldiers,” he explained. “But we also house a lot of civilians who help run the base, like nursing staff, electricians… those sorts of jobs.”

Black tiled floors shone beneath me as I followed Aden into a sparsely populated corridor. Every person, I noticed, wore the same black uniform as Aden, only the girls wore black skirts and tall boots instead of pants. Some of the uniforms were red; others white. I did notice that the white uniforms all had a red cross on their right jacket shoulder. All of the military personnel wore at least one gold, silver, or bronze chevron on their right sleeves.

“
What’s up with the different colored uniforms?” I asked.

“
Black,” Aden said, pulling at his own sleeve, “is for the soldiers. Our medical staff wears white, while our technical staff wears red. Color coding is mostly to help the new recruits quickly distinguish a person’s rank and position. And if you’ll notice –” he pointed to an older man talking to a teenage girl, both wearing white – “the medical staff all wear crosses on their sleeves, with the certified doctors bearing a caduceus.”

I remembered reading something about the caduceus – the winged staff of the god Hermes – back in my freshman literature class. It had been a symbol for healing and medicine for many years, and was later adopted by the U.S. Army to represent their medical corps.

“
And the chevrons?” I asked.

“
They go by rank and years of experience. Obviously, the more chevrons you have, the higher your rank, with bronze marking you as a newbie. If you make it through your first year, you advance to silver, and then it’s a five year stretch before you get to gold.”

I took in the three gold chevrons on Aden’s sleeve. “Then you must have been a vampire for, what, a decade or so?”

He looked at me sidelong, smiling slyly. “Maybe. Or perhaps I’m just really good at what I do.”

A few heads turned, all teenage males, but for the most part no one paid me any attention. I wondered if I should be worried about someone recognizing me (if Aden and Paris said they knew me from the media, than why shouldn’t other vampires know my face?), but nobody showed any sign of recognition when they gave me the “once over.”

The tension in my shoulders eased a little.
Maybe I’m not as famous as I thought.

Whenever Aden passed someone in a black uniform, they would turn and salute, and he would nod at them before they returned to whatever it was they were doing.

As we walked, the interior curiously shifted. This part of the base was fairly pretty and surprisingly stylish for a military outfit. The walls were a deep brown, with gold-gilded lamps hanging from the spackled ceiling. The heels of our boots clicked along polished marble floors of swirling caramel and cream.

“
Stay close,” Aden said, and I jogged a bit to catch up as he turned a corner. He walked straight toward a set of double doors – a plaque that read MESS HALL hung beside them – and opened one, spilling noise into the hall and motioning me inside.

I walked through, muttering “thank you” for the held door, and found myself standing in what appeared to be a fancy, restaurant-style cafeteria. Polished black booths and tables – all lined in red cushioning – were set up around the circular room. Several cash registers and buffets were situated on my right. It was pretty packed, and everyone was chatting and relaxing while enjoying their meals together. It looked like any other cafeteria I’d ever been in, only more nicely furnished.

Aden turned to face me, and discreetly unpinned my name badge, slipping it into his pants pocket. “Better for you to remain Jane Doe for this interaction,” he said quietly. “Let me do the talking. This way.” He directed me to a corner booth, where a pixie petite girl with peach-colored skin and curly blond hair pulled up in pigtails sat talking to a tall, muscular man with a bulky frame and dark skin. He had his back to me; I couldn’t see his face, only that he had long hair tied back into several long, thick braids. The girl had on a red uniform, so I knew she was some sort of technical staff, while the boy was clearly marked a soldier by his black outfit.

Aden’s right. Color coding does help. At least I now know which ones will pose the greatest threat.

The girl slurped on her soda can, babbling excitedly to her friend each time she took a breath. His broad shoulders shook with laughter as she made a funny face, emphasizing whatever point she had been making with quick hand gestures. Watching her, I wondered how someone could possess that much energy. It seemed exhausting.

Aden walked right up to the table and cleared his throat. The girl stopped mid-sentence to gape up at me, her baby doll face lit with childlike curiosity. I couldn’t see the boy’s reaction, though I caught him leaning past Aden to catch a glimpse of me.

“
Guys,” Aden said, “this is Sergeant –”

“
Sloane?
”

The boy’s soft, airy voice was strikingly familiar in my head. My gaze snapped to his, and we stared at each other for a few seconds, our faces mirroring one another’s shock and disbelief.

It took me several seconds to find my tongue. “Rook?” I whispered.

He looked exactly as I remembered. Every detail was the same as it had been the night I lost my brother – and I thought, Rook – to the vampire. As the goalie for my brother’s hockey team – of which, Orion was the captain of – Rook had always been athletic and toned, but not the tank he had apparently become upon turning into a vampire. His warm, gentle brown eyes looked me over, as if not quite believing what he was seeing.

I shrank back, searching for any sign of anger or resentment, but a bright smile warmed his face as he rose from the table and wrapped me up in a bear hug, laughing. “It
is
you!”

Rook was much taller than me – he and my brother had both been giants, standing at 6’5” – and after my initial shock at having him there, hugging me,
alive
, I threw my arms around him and laughed, tears stinging my eyes.

He pulled away, placing a hand at my back and gently pushing me toward the booth. “Here, please,” he said, taking his seat and motioning for me to sit beside him. I glanced at Aden, who looked a bit perplexed by our sudden camaraderie, and slid into the booth by Rook. (His name was actually Jerome Crecey, but when he had first joined my brother’s hockey team, everyone had called him “rookie” until he proved himself otherwise. Their first game, he stopped nearly every goal of the opposing team. Despite his triumph, the name had stuck, and everyone had affectionately called him “Rook” from then on.)

Aden slipped into the booth beside the girl, who scooted over to make room for him. I could feel Rook’s excitement at seeing me. “How… when?” he asked.

“
Um…” I bit my lip, and looked at Aden expectantly, who just shrugged and steepled his fingers together, looking slightly amused by all this. I took it as my cue to continue. “I went into the Red Sector to look for Orion,” I said quietly, feeling a new stab of pain at mentioning his name. “And I was attacked.” My palms began to sweat as I faltered, unsure whether or not I should tell them the truth.

“
I saw her fighting off a Rogue, and thought she could make for a good recruit,” Aden inserted smoothly.

“
Rogue?” I interrupted.

“
A wild vampire, more animal than human,” Aden said absently. I had more questions, but he didn’t give me a chance to ask before he went on. “Anyway, I opted to change her myself. Though her combat skills and determination were impressive, she was badly bleeding and didn’t have long.”

I gave Aden a look but quickly masked it. Why was he lying for me? These were his friends, or at least, I thought they were. What secret did he have to hide from them?

Rook nodded, laughing softly. “Sloane always did have a penchant for fighting. I told her brother that we should let her on as one of our defenseman so she could get out some of that pent up aggression on the ice.”

The blond girl sat quietly, listening and observing, though her face remained open and friendly.

“
A penchant for fighting,” Aden murmured. “Yes, I could see that.”

I scowled at him, leaning back into the seat and crossing my arms. So what if I had a record for brawling? My father hadn’t exactly liked it, but he had taught Orion and me to look after ourselves, to not let anyone push us around. We were far from being bullies, and though we never started the fights, we could certainly finish them.

“
I’m sorry about Orion,” Rook suddenly said, his voice no louder than a breeze.

“
So you saw him, then? Before…” I asked.

Rook nodded, his eyes growing distant. “It was like something out of a nightmare… there was so much blood and the Rogue… its thirst was too out-of-control.” He blinked, shaking himself free of the memory. “He didn’t suffer long, I’m sure of that.” He gave me a small smile, trying to be sympathetic.

So much blood.
I closed my eyes, seeing my brother’s horror-stricken face as he called out to me. And now, seeing Rook was like visiting with a ghost, and a wave of guilt crashed through my chest. “I… I’m sorry.”

Rook’s smile faltered. “For what?”

“
For what I did,” I whispered.

He chewed his lip thoughtfully. “I don’t blame you, Sloane. I would have reacted the same way.” He reached over and squeezed my hand. “So don’t you feel guilty for a second, okay?”

I saw the sincerity in his eyes, and I nodded, giving him a small smile. “Did that thing… change you?”

Rook squished up his face. “Rogues are more feral than that. They tend to be so consumed by the thirst that they drain and kill their human victims, never feeding them their own blood when the human’s on the verge of death. ‘Full drainage’ makes the immune system really weak, allowing the
vampirism
virus to spread quickly and easily. I was bitten, but I managed to escape before the Rogue killed me, blacking out in the countryside. Then I woke up down here, like this.”

My brain soaked up this information like a sponge. I already knew how a human became infected by
vampirism
. Leo had told me a horrific story of a death row inmate who had been “fed” to a captured vampire, some sick experiment to find out if the virus could be transferred. Apparently the government went through several prisoners before they figured out the victim had to drink vampire blood for the virus to take effect.

“
So you don’t know who turned you?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No idea.”

“
And… you’re okay with being like this? A vampire?”

He laughed. “At first, I couldn’t believe it, but I think more than anything I’m just happy to be alive. It’s not like I had anything waiting for me back home.”

Rook came from a rough family life, having practically raised himself in one of the toughest parts of town. I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to go back.

I smiled. “It’s so good to see you.”

Aden gently cleared his throat, and we both faced forward. “Well,” he said, looking pointedly at Rook, “you never mentioned you knew Sovereign McAllister’s daughter.”

Rook shrugged and winked at me. “You never asked.”

Aden sighed, rubbing his temples, while the blond haired girl giggled. “I like her, Aden,” she chirped. “She sounds like fun.”

Aden motioned to the girl. “How could I forget? Sloane, this is Angel Johnson. She’s a master in computer security.”

A master, huh? She didn’t look a day older than sixteen, with one of those cherubic faces that would never age (quite literally, now that she was a vampire).

Angel stood and reached across the table, her pink lips stretched into a bright smile. “Hi! It’s so nice to meet a friend of Rook’s. I’m super excited to have another girl around. Let me tell you, it’ll be a huge relief not having to depend on these two for fashion advice.” She squealed. “Lunch is going to be so much fun!”