Relentlessly, I swing my blade down and down, repeatedly until my fingers swell up from my death grip with the hilt of the sword.
"Your swings are getting messier and messier," Blake's eyebrows furrows into a frown.
Frustrated, I continue to close the distance between us to get a good hit on him, but he easily dodges each swing swiftly. "I know!" I continue to charge at him.
"You're attacking me blindly, you need to know self control," Blake says calmly as he dodges left and right.
"Well, you're sure not make it any easier!" I exclaim, trying to predict which place he would dodge.
Without any warning, he gives a faint smile and kicks me in the stomach, sending me crashing backwards to the ground. As the ground strikes my tailbone I gasp in pain but bite down a scream. Blake kneels down next to me as I stay sprawled on the ground, not wanting to get up.
"What was that for?!" I ask angrily. We have been training for hours till no end and I am tired. I need to hit him like yesterday again.
"You weren't taking this seriously enough," Blake replies in a matter-of-factly voice.
Frustration and fury shoots through my skin and I immediately sit up and whip my head to him. Glaring at him with my most menancing glare I say coldly, "Don't tell me that I'm not taking this seirosly when I. Obviously. Am."
His expression stays emotionless and he stands up. Then, in less than a second I see him raise his leg again to kick me. Immediately, I scurry back, out of his reach and cross my arms over my chest to defend myself. As he turns his head around, I see a playful yet evil glint cross his eyes.
This is bad, very bad. As soon as he charges at me I run back, trying to leave distance between us. Now that I have no idea what he's going to do, I'm actually quite scared. Before when we were training I knew that he would never hurt me intentionaly, but now that I saw that glint in his eyes, I know this is no longer training. He wants me to fight him for real, and he is going to fight me for real as well.
I sprint across the room and I finally reach the door with Blake trailing down my footsteps. Quickly, I yank the doornob but it isn't budging. Darn him, he probably locked it from the outside. When I turn around, I see a his fist about to contact my face until I flipped backwards, and continue running to the otherside of the room.
"What's wrong Liana? Didn't you want to close the distance between us?" he smiles coldly, his footsteps increasing as I continue to run.
"You're going to kill me!" I yell at him while running down until I hit a dead end.
"I would never kill you," he replies back. Yes, I know Blake wouldn't kill me but I know that he would injure me till the point of not walking if it is to teach me a lesson.
"Yea, but you would hurt me!" I yell while turning the other direction until I feel my arms getting grabbed and pushed backwards. I yelp in suprise but I quickly regain my stability. Before he could get a good punch on me I skid through between his legs and continue running to the other side.
As I look back, I see that Blake isn't even trying to catch up to me. Well, that was dumb of me, I was running and wasting my energy. I halt to a stop and see the weapons back. Why didn't I think of this earlier? Smiling, I grab dozens of sharp knives and whip my body around to confront Blake.
He is about ten feet away now, looking at me with raised eyebrows. Flashing him a cruel smile, I raise my fingers, each with a knife between them and aim them at Blake.
"Now, why don't we play fair. It's not nice to harm an unarmed man," Blake smiles wryly.
I give him my sweetest smile in return and say in my sugary voice, "This is fair Blake Honey. You have years of experience and I have less than a year." Then with just that, my knives shoot forward at him, each aiming at a position in Blake's body.
With a sigh, Blake flips backward and dodges again, and again, swiftly and effortlessly. The knives hit the floor without leaving a scratch at him. Dumfounded and shock, I stare at him with widened eyes.
Before I can even react, I see Blake's fist contacting my face. The next thing I know, I'm on the ground with black spots blurring my vision. Pain shoots through my back and shoulder. I groan in pain as I roll to the side, applying less pressure to my back. Wrong choice. Pain spreads throughout my body, shocking my whole body with pain.
"Ugh," I groan, still shutting my eyes.
"Are you done now? Do you finally understand what fighting for real is?" I hear Blake's voice near my ear.
"You hit me!" I shout, finally opening my eyes to see Blake sitting beside me.
"Hey, I didn't hit you in the face at least," Blake jokes, but quickly his smile disappears once he sees that I'm not laughing. At all.
"Well did you have to hit me?" I ask, finally grasping control in my voice.
"Would you have tried to kill me otherwise?" he asks in return.
"No..." I mutter softly to myself.
He smiles gently and lifts me off the ground. "This time, hit me with everything you've got."
A smiles forms between the corners of my mouth as I say, "No problem."
After a couple more hours, I get exhuasted and Blake escorts me back to my room. It's six P.M. now. I sigh as I get a change of clothes and walk towards the shower room. Every part of my body is covered with sweat and it's gross, I have never trained this hard in my life. Ever.
As I walk down the hallway, a little boy walks to me and hands me a flower. Confused, I smile and ask, "What's this for?"
He looks at me with his big blue eyes and reply, "For you."
I give a small laugh and ask, "Why?"
He beams and says, "I met my second officer and that was you!"
Oh, I remember him now. He was the little boy that was running around and I met him a couple of days ago.
"I feel honored to be your second officer," I smile. This boy is probably seven, no older than nine I suspect. Like every other strigoi, he's very pale but I've gotten used to it now.
"But mama is always so busy," he says, his expression turning sad.
"Does she work?" I ask curiously.
"No. She just stays in her room all the time and she never leaves. Her stomach is very big though," he says, gesturing his stomach.
I laugh and he stares at me confused. Then, I pat him on the head gently, "Do you want a little sister or brother?"
His eyes widens and he jumps, tugging on my hands, "I'm getting a little brother or sister?"
"If you're a good little boy yes, you will," I continue to smile. He's very adorable, but of course I never got the pleasure of having a younger sibiling.
He continues to jump around, beaming, "I want a little brother and sister!"
"Why do you want both?" I ask, still smiling.
"Because if I want a brother, the sister would feel sad. And If I wanted a sister, the brother would feel sad!" he explains to me, fully gesturing his hands.
I laugh and pat his head, "Alright kiddo, I think it's best if you go back to your mother. I need to shower."
He gives me a sad expression and nods slowly. Reluctantly, he staggers away, sulking at the ground. If I had a little brother like that, I would be very happy. I recall his name is Ethan, or so his mother calls him Ethan.
After he leaves I begin to walk done the hallway again until I meet up with another officer, this officer is a girl with a tight blonde bun tied up. I raise my eyebrows and look at her, questioning her motives.
""Ma'am, you will have to come with me," she says calmly, her gaze never leaving mines.
"Seriously? Right now? Can't this wait until after I shower?" I plead, hoping that she will grant my wish.
Her expression remains composed and she repeats once again, "You will have to come with us."
I cross my arms and stay in my position firmly. "And by who's orders my I ask?"
"Samuel," she replies, her voice staying calm.
"Can't you just tell me what he wants to say to me?" I tilt my head, allowing a strand of hair to fall down.
"It's confidential. Now, either you come with me willingly, or by force," she says, her voice monotone.
I look down on my clothes. My clothes are sweaty and are wrinkled, definitely not in the best shape to see the leader of strigois but then again, I never liked Samuel. I can't wait to see his expression when he sees my clothes.
"Okay, I'll come." I smile.
She frowns at me, probably at my change in emotion and then she leads me to Samuel.
I’m just about to knock on Samuel’s door until I hear a scream coming from his room, my muscles tense up and I pause. The scream is a woman’s scream, I’m sure of it. Then, the scream comes again and I continue to pause there, unsure of what to do. Again, and again the scream comes several times in just a few seconds of me standing there.
Shaking, I knock on the door softly. I hear a woman’s voice and Samuel’s voice exchanging conversations as I footsteps close in on me near the door. Then, the door swings open, revealing Samuel stained in blood.
“What the—“ I begin as my eyes widen in horror as I see him. It’s not that I’m not used to these kinds of encounters; people stained in blood, but it’s more that I heard screams coming from his room and I’m horrified to find out what he was doing; or what he is still doing.
Samuel looks at me with a weary and tired expression on his face. He crinkles his nose and then he says, “Come. I have something to discuss with you.”
I obediently walk into his room, not uttering a word and then I see something horrid. Lying before me, is a moroi leader wearing a red satin dress but under her is a pool of blood. She is always the one who dragged me into this blood manipulator mess but she must have been captured.
Blood manipulators can regenerate blood, and they can regenerate it quickly too but this much blood is too extreme. Gasping, I cover my hands over my mouth to avoid a scream.
Rose shoots me a glare and clenches her teeth tight together as if she is going to threaten me. I have betrayed them, the moroi, and joined their worst enemy. The moroi provided me with comfort and welcomed me in warm hands and as soon as I was captured, I quickly switched sides. Guilt flourishes over me and I cower my head down, avoiding Roses’s glare.
“Why is she bleeding so much? Did you do this to her?” I ask softly, continuing avoiding Rose’s gaze.
“Wouldn’t you like to know little mixed blood?” Roses spits out blood and smiles cruelly. There are scars all over her body and her mouth is dripping with blood. I could never
I turn my head around to Samuel, looking for answers. He stares at Rose and then he sighs. He walks over to Rose and slaps her in the face with a loud BAM! Her body falls to the ground from the impact of Samuel’s slap but before she falls, she places both of her palms on the ground to avoid falling. A red blotch appears on the side of her cheek.
My eyes widens as I try to take in what I just saw. Samuel is usually relatively patient and I have never, ever seen him raise his hand on anyone. Witnessing this scene is just…unbelievable; not amazing unbelievable, but just horrible. The poor woman is already suffering and yet Samuel just slapped her across the face. I try to choke down a scream but I don’t succeed and a little gasp comes out from my mouth.
“Why did you slap her?” I whimper. I’m not sure what to do, I don’t even have a speck of clue why a moroi leader is held here.
“Because she has a little too much confidence in her,” he replies and then I see a little speck of sorrowfulness cross his face but it quickly disappears.
“Well you didn’t have to slap her,” I say, still not processing the words he is saying to me. No one deserves to be treated like this, I try to make the lives I take as painless as possible. Samuel is doing the exact opposite.
“And you shouldn’t ask things you do not know,” Samuel replies coldly. Then he walks over to his cabinets and pulls out a whip. My eyes widen and I quickly leap at him by instinct, trying to snatch the whip away from him. Who knows what he’s going to do with that whip, anything could happen with Samuel; both he and Blake are unpredictable.
Samuel pushes me back a few feet until I hit the wall with my back. Staring at him, he’s still holding the whip firmly and now he’s facing Rose. If I don’t get that whip from him, he might whip Rose with it and that is something I do not, want to see.
“Why are you torturing her?” I ask him. My feet are parted and I’m prepared to lunge for him once again, and again until that whip is out of his grasps.
He glances at me for a brief second and replies, “She deserves it.”
Rose stays on the ground and her gaze doesn’t falter for a second, she glares at Samuel for a moment until she says, “You deserve it, I don’t deserve anything like this.”
Samuel’s face distorts into anger and rage. He brings his arm up holding the whip. On reflex, I quickly jump in between Rose and Samuel and stretch my arms out. I wince when the whip is about to strike me but to my surprise, it didn’t. Glancing up at Samuel, the whip is on the ground and he is no longer angry anymore.
Instead of anger, his expression is replaced by sadness. Confused, I stare at him in disbelief, wondering what just happened. Then, I turn around to look at Rose and she is grinning was triumph. I stared at her incredulously. How can she be laughing and smiling when someone else is feeling sorrowfulness?
“Even though you already made your decision you still regret it, coward,” Rose spits out, laughing at Samuel.
Samuel buries his face into the palms of his hands and then he looks away.
“Samuel, are you alright?” I ask gently, walking towards him.
He continues to ignore me and buries his face into his palms.
“You don’t even know what is going on foolish mixed blood, yet you take his side,” Rose says in a raspy voice.
“I know that Samuel has a reason for his actions,” I reply, facing Rose.
She raises her eyebrows and she chokes on a laugh. “If that is really the type of person he is,” she says and coughs some blood out, “then I would have still loved him but it turns he isn’t that type of person.”
I give her a puzzled expression and she cackles.
“Samuel and I were once lovers,” she says, smiling coldly as though she recalled the memory but is disgusted by it.
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Good News:
Finally an update! :D
Bad News:
I don't have time at all this month to update any of my stories. The next update will probably be in Feb, but I'll work super hard on the future chapters. I would love to write stories all day but unforunately, I just don't have the time. :(