Читать книгу Bitten (Book #3 of the Vampire Legends) - Emma Knight - Страница 9

Chapter Three

Rachel wheeled and was startled to see a girl standing there, in the shadows. She screamed and then said, “Who are you?”

The girl stared back at her, silent at first, shaking her head as if to say, how dare you ask who I am.

“You came all this way to see me and now you’re asking who I am?” the girl muttered.

“Matilda?” she asked, looking at her, realizing she was the spitting image of Benji in girl form.

“Um, yeah. Isn’t that why you’re here knocking on my door?”

Surprised by her rudeness, Rachel decided to put down her defenses and wait to see what she would say next.

Looking down at her watch, Matilda said, “You’re late! The first session has already begun—and you can’t miss it.”

Matilda reached out and grabbed Rachel’s hand and dragged her down the winding staircase. In the distance Rachel could hear loud bells ringing, and then, after a moment of silence, cannons going off.

Matilda took her by the hand and pulled her through a large foyer, which opened out onto a vast balcony with columns and marble steps going down onto a giant football-sized field of grass.

“Get in line!” Matilda whispered, as she pushed her out onto the field. “I’ll be waiting here for you when the session is over.”

Rachel walked over to join the line of ten or so people on the field all, facing the coach, who wore a black-and-white striped uniform. He looked like the umpire from AHS football games. The group was in the middle of stretching and she quickly joined them, doing exactly as they did. Nobody was out of line and everyone was listening intently to the coach.

“Now young vampires, we will practice Mind Vision,” the coach yelled out. “See that pack of deer over there?” he pointed into the woods. “We will now each coax a deer out into the field with the power of our minds.”

Standing there, feeling like an idiot for not knowing what Mind Vision was, she watched as the others focused on their pray. Watching them draw the deer closer, she suddenly got a hunger pang stronger than she’d ever felt before. Her mouth started to salivate and her face began to drip beads of sweat. She stared at her deer and opened her eyes wide. The deer turned sharply and stared back at her as if under a spell. It started walking out of the woods slowly and then as she focused harder and harder on coaxing the deer out, it began to pick up speed until it was galloping full force towards her.

When it got to the edge of the field, she blinked her eyes and the deer stopped moving. She looked around at her peers and saw that they too had stopped using Mind Vision and were waiting for the next instructions from the coach.

She couldn’t bear it anymore. All she could think about was charging after that deer and sinking her teeth into its neck. She couldn’t understand where this was all coming from, but it felt so natural to her, like she’d been doing it her whole life.

“I would imagine you are all feeling a bit weak and hungry inside?” the coach said. “A side effect of Mind Vision on animals is that you suddenly get an urge to feed. Now, I know most of you have never fed on anything before, so let this be your first go at it. I’ll wait here, and use your instincts at the prey that awaits you,” he said as he pointed towards the pack of deer waiting on the edge of the field.

All of a sudden the young vampires all started charging at their prey. Rachel’s feet began to move quicker and quicker as she started towards her deer. She felt a surge of energy as her stride became wider, then began to think about what would happen once she got close enough to the deer. She suddenly didn’t know how to proceed as she felt her feet slip out from beneath her as she fell face first onto the ground.

“Rachel!” yelled the coach. “Come here, now!”

She pulled herself to her feet and began walking back towards the other end of the field. She turned her head over her shoulder to see that the others were diving into their prey, tearing the deer apart limb by limb and sucking out their blood. She saw the red blood dripping down their bodies and wished she could be over there, too.

“Rachel! Faster!” the coach yelled out.

“Coming!” she yelled back as she quickened her pace.

As she approached him, she could see him looking at her disapprovingly. She hesitantly walked up to him and waited to see what he had to say.

“The reason that you fell is because you tried to run with your feet, and you tried to chase the deer with your body. You are still stuck on a physical level. What you fail to realize is that your body will always fail you. You don’t catch a deer with your body, you catch it with you mind. The more that you try to will yourself to achieve something, the less you will. What you need to realize is that there is no separation between you and the deer. In the physical world there is separation, but in the spiritual world, there is none. Don’t chase the deer, feel the deer. Don’t try to run after it. Let your legs carry you there. See it in your mind, and it will be.”

He stopped speaking and looked at her in silence, waiting for her to comprehend his lesson.

The coach stared back, pointed towards the woods, and sternly said, “Try again!”

She turned her body to face the deer again, which had migrated back into the woods. She began with Mind Vision and pulled the deer back out into the open. She felt a surge run through her body which she had never felt before. She didn’t stop to think about, knowing that could be the difference between her achieving her goals and remaining a novice vampire forever. She let her legs carry her quickly towards the deer.

Her body seemed to morph into warp animal speed as she leapt across the field at a pace she never knew she could achieve. She felt her long sharp fangs begin to protrude as she leapt onto the deer. She sank her long fangs into the deer’s neck and killed it.

It fell to the ground as she kneeled beside, it draining the blood into her wide-open mouth. The taste of the blood hitting her tongue was better than anything she had tasted before and the feeling of the excess blood dripping out of her mouth was like heaven to her.

When she finished licking the blood off the final leg bone, she turned to see all the other young vampires had already finished, and were back in line where they had started. She had become so entranced by her first feeding, she didn’t stop to realize that everyone was waiting for her, watching her as she tasted her first victim.

The coach looked over at her and yelled, “Let’s go Rachel, we don’t have all day here.”

Jumping to her feet she yelled back, “Coming, sorry!”

She ran back and stood in line next to another girl about her age with black curly hair, hazel brown eyes and pale skin. The girl looked over at her, looked her up and down and then smiled at her. Suddenly, Rachel felt like she might have a friend at this place. She didn’t quite know who these other people were, or why they were here, but she didn’t question it at that moment; she enjoyed the friendly exchange and smiled back.

She watched as the coach looked down at his watch and then up into the foggy dawn sky and then said, “We need to be quick for this next lesson. We have .25 hours until the sun rises and we will die here on this field if you do not listen carefully.”

She looked back in horror as the words came out of his mouth. Suddenly she vaguely remembered that Benji had mentioned something to her about not going out into the sun without a special lotion. She hadn’t given it thought up until that moment, because, well, she didn’t have to, but now this was a matter of life and death and she was working against the clock.

“I will teach you how to apply Hex Lotion,” the coach said, reaching into a large black duffle bag that sat at his feet. Then he pulled out a handful of white tubes of lotion and threw them at all the young vampires, each catching them at lightning speed.

She looked down at the nondescript bottle and began to twist off the cap as she heard the coach yell in a stern voice, “Don’t open it until I say so. This is not a toy and you must never mess around with Hex Lotion. It can only be applied five minutes before the sun rises, not a minute sooner and not a minute later.”

She quickly re-screwed the cap back on and then looked down at her purple watch in an attempt to set the timer—but it still read “error code.” Holding the bottle down by her side, she waited for the next set of instructions from the coach. The group stood there silently as he continuously checked his watch and looked up at the rising sun.

“We have three minutes before we can open the cap. Now, listen up! You only have one shot at getting this right so heed my words and don’t make a mistake.”

Rachel couldn’t take her eyes off the coach. She hung on his every word, her heart beating out of her chest with nervousness and excitement.

“Two minutes!” he yelled out. “Place both of your hands on the bottle – one holding the tube and one on the cap, ready to unscrew it.”

She prepared herself trying to get the exact grip the coach explained.

“One minute! Everyone must be ready, this is not a drill.”

Standing there in a near panic she waited, counting down the seconds until he would speak again.

“OPEN!” he yelled, as he and the rest of the young vampires began unscrewing their caps.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh,” Rachel was saying under her breath as she fumbled with the cap. “I’m gonna die, this can’t be happening.”

“Shh!” the girl next to her said. “Be quiet, he’s telling us what to do!”

She looked over and gave her an apologetic look and then tuned to the coach.

“Quickly squeeze out a dime sized amount onto your palm and rub it between both of your hands. That is ALL you will need,” he stressed.

“When you have done that, begin applying it to your skin. Don’t miss a spot. Any spot you miss WILL singe off once the sun rises.”

She watched as everyone began lathering up. It was similar to putting on suntan lotion, she thought, yet very different. She knew any spot she missed would singe off, unlike a missed spot of SPF. She rubbed frantically her arms, legs, face, ears, behind her ears, her eye lids, nose, lips, scalp, legs, knees, feet and toes, making sure not to miss a speck of skin. She then looked up and waited for the coach to give out the next instructions.

Then, all of a sudden she felt her skin become hard, almost like a helmet. She held her arm out and watched the transformation take place. Her skin glazed over and turned a bright shade of white. She could see the lotion taking effect. Thankfully, she didn’t see any part of her skin remaining as the color transformation took place in front of her eyes.

“Help!” yelled out one of the young vampires. “My finger, it didn’t harden! What do I do?”

The coach just stood there, shaking his head and then looking up at the quickly rising sun. “There’s no time, say goodbye to your finger.”

“No! Wait! Stop!” he yelled back. “Fix it!”

“What is done, is done,” the coach said back in a calm, deep voice.

“Come, please help!” he said, but the coach just stood in place and waited.

Within seconds the field was overtaken by his shrieking, then a loud singing noise, followed by smoke and the sight of his finger disintegrating right before them. The group of young vampires watched as his pinky finger was singed off by the light of the sun and then as if by magic, the stump healed itself in front of their eyes.

“Let this be a lesson to all of you,” the coach said. “One misstep and it could mean the end.”

Rachel stood there, and her eyes and her mouth hung wide open. She couldn’t believe what had just happened. Nobody said a word for what felt like days as they all stood there on the field, silently reflecting. Everybody kept to themselves and nobody dare look around. The mood of the group grew tense and somber.

“We will end here for the day,” the coach said. “Be back here at 6AM tomorrow morning.”

Before she could even think about what she was about to say, Rachel said, “Wait!”

Everyone turned and looked at her. All of a sudden she felt like she had a million eyes on her. All she could feel was panic, but she had to ask this question, she didn’t want anything bad to happen to her.

“Um, how long does the lotion last?”

The other young vampires looked at her in agreement, shaking their heads. It felt good to her that they also seemed curious.

“Yes, I forgot to mention, it will last all day until the sun goes down. It will NEVER last you more than one day so make sure each morning you have the tube ready to go five minutes before sunrise,” the coach said. “You are dismissed.”