Immortal Nights - Chapter 9

Bailey - 9

"So how's life Bay?" asked Darren. We were sitting in a small courtyard near the main Capitol building. It was surrounded by trees and other plants, all so colorful and in bloom, it was really quite beautiful. "Not too bad, just training and studying. You know the norm. What about you, how's being a Silver Heart?" He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck, leaning back into the wooden seat. "You know, it's not too bad. Things have been quiet lately but we train practically 24/7, which is tough but I like it and I don't really mind the muscle aches, I just enjoying kicking vampire ass." We laughed and sat for a while.

"From what I hear," Darren broke the silence, "You're on the watch list for the Silver Hearts. Just don't tell anyone I told you, Kay pixie?" he laughed again and I moaned. He was still using the nickname he had given me when we first met when we were kids, before he saw me in action, that is, but the name stuck. "Your secrets safe with me." "So are you training today, or is the shoulder still bugging you?"

"Actually, it hasn't been hurting and the doc gave me the all clear, so yeah, I will be."
"Well, Steven has applied me as your trainer for a few weeks, you and some boy. You don't mind sharing me do you?" I laughed and slugged him in the arm. "Get over yourself, he can have you." I poked out my tongue. I looked down at my pink swatch watch. "Oh, I gotta go, I have history of the vamps in five minutes." I quickly gave Darren a quick hug and ran towards the north buildings.
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I made it to class just before our history of the vamps teacher and found a seat around the middle section of desks. I could hear whispering and laughter coming from behind me. I turned around to find Emily and a few look-alikes staring at me, I smiled and turned back around. If this was what high school was like then I was very happy that I was homeschooled. "Good morning class," I turned my attention to the teacher, "We're going to start with ancient vampire history. Please take out a notebook and pen and jot down some notes." A hand shot up on the other side of the room. "Before you ask, yes there will be a test and that grade will go to your overall ranking and passing grade."

There was a small amount of chatter and people getting out their books and pen. "Excuse me," there was a tap on my arm, "can I borrow a pen, I forgot to bring one." I fumbled for a pen out of my champion backpack and handed it to my neighbor. I nearly gasped in surprise; I had never seen anything like her. She had black, choppy layers with long bangs and red, blue and purple streaks all through her hair. She had multiple piercings on both ears, she even had one on her nose and her lip. Her eyes were rimmed with thick black eyeliner and blue eye shadow and she had the reddest lips I had ever seen. She gave me a weird look. "Oh sorry, I shouldn't have stared. I'm Bailey."

"Riley," she smiled and slightly pointed to the front of the room, "I think he wants our attention." "Thank you girls." There was a small snicker from the back and I didn't even have to look to know who it was. "Ever since humans have roamed the earth, vampires were right alongside them. Before Eve, Adam had another wife, Lilith. Though she left as she did not like the way Adam was more superior, the angels begged her to stay but because of her refusal she was thrown out and made to walk on the earth as a monster, or as we call them, a vampire. She then took the devil as a mate and they spread hundreds of vampires. That's where the slayers formed. Slayers have been around as long as the vampires; there are just little records as slayers were usually knights, doctors or common folk."

I scribbled down some more notes. I was finding this really interesting, I had never even heard about this before, not in any books or diaries or anything. "On a lighter note I would like you to take this novel and decipher which things are true and which are false. Also, if you want to extend yourself, I want you to write where these false traits may have originated from, and why people believe in those traits today." I quickly jotted down the homework and closed my book. "Thank you everyone." We got up to leave and I started walking out the door. "Bailey, can you stay behind one second?"

"Sure." I walked over to his desk, worrying that I had done something wrong. "Don't worry, nothing bad," he laughed, "I just wanted to say that, you remind me so much of your father." I gasped. No one had ever talked about my father to me. "You-you knew my dad?"
"Well, yes. He was quite a great friend of mine, and a marvelous slayer, one of the best. I was shocked when I heard of his death. When I heard you were coming here I was excited. I had only seen you when you were a newborn, and my, you've changed! Except for the hair, you had a mop of that fire red hair when you were born," he smile, "You better get to class, but if you ever want to talk of your father, come to me, I'd love the company." His gray eyes glowed with delight and I smiled back at him. "I will, you can count on that."
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It was the last class of the day, fitness and fight training. I was in the girl's locker room, changing into my Capitol sport top, black shorts and my bright purple Nikes. "Hey, what did the vamp history teacher want?" I looked up to the owner of the husky voice. Riley stood there smiling. "Just talking about family, he's an old family friend apparently."

"One of your dad's?" she asked. My eyes widened. "Wait, how'd you know?"
"My group leader was mentioning your name in a conversation with yours? Dave I think."
"Oh, yeah that's him." She smiled and put an arm around me. She was quite tall and I felt like a little kid compared to her. "Don't worry, I won't tell. If you ever need someone to talk to about stuff, I'm here. I can even tell you my secrets if it would make you feel better."

"I'd like that. Thanks." We left the change room and I waved goodbye as she went down the hall and outside to the cross-country track to meet her trainer. I went the other way looking for gym 1. I opened the metal door and walked into a large room complete with a small rock climbing wall and ropes going from the floor to the roof along with a treadmill, a weight machine and a large space in the middle of the room with a padded floor. "Bay, this is Jason, your training partner. Jason this is Bailey."

"We've met." It was the boy from the library. He gave me smile and I smiled back. He was probably happy, he was put up against a girl but knowing the Capitol, they had probably paired us due to our performance records. I couldn't wait to fight him just to show that girls, as small as me, could still kick butt. "Okay!" called Darren, "on the treadmills, two minute jogs and one minute sprints, for fifteen minutes. I quickly stretched out my legs and hopped on the closest machine. "Ready?" I asked Jason. He smiled devilishly and we started. At first we stayed the same but at the first sprint I was surprised how fast he was. He easily was up one more level than me, and I was trying to look human. The last sprint I decided to show off. I cranked the level to ten and then even higher. "Stop, time's up!" I turned the power down and walked for a few seconds. "God Bailey, didn't know you had that in you."

"There's a lot you don't know about me Jason." "Right, combat," ordered Darren. We walked over to the padded floor area and he told us to stand facing each other. "First thing, I need to see how you compare to each other. So, we're going to have a small fight but there is to be no facial punches, no scratching or biting, right Bailey." I laughed, thinking back to one of my past fights with Darren in which I had bitten his shoulder so hard it had left a nasty purple bruise. He hadn't held me in that leg hold ever again. "On three! One, two, three!" Jason and I circled for a while, testing the other person's patients. Suddenly he went to punch but I blocked his fist with my arm. I went to kick him in the chest but he grabbed my leg. He tried to trip me by pulling that leg higher and away from my body but using the force against him I jumped of my other leg, spun in the air and windmill kicked his shoulder. He let go of my leg and he stumbled backwards, but I was unlucky and fell onto my knee. He lunged at me again, pinning me onto my back, his legs holding my legs down and pulling my arms above my head. "Give up?" he mocked.

"Never." I tried to pull my leg from under him but was only partly successful. My leg was now bent, my knee against his chest. He laughed. I was going to have to get out the hard way. Pulling my other leg so it was the same I straightened them both with force and flung him over and onto his back behind me. Quickly I got up, spun around and pinned him down. He wrapped his hand over my wrist and looked into my eyes. I felt a tingle flow up my arm, his eyes stared into mine. "Well Bailey. This was a surprise," he laughed. "I surrender!" he called to Darren. We got up and laughed. "That was unexpected."
"Never judge a girl by her gender or her height," I teased, "but don't worry, that was one of the hardest fights I've been done in training before." "That was great you two," Darren coached, jotting down some things on a clipboard, "Now, go climb the rope."
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"Bailey." Dave called me over from where I sat in the girls common, "Can we talk for a second?" I nodded and walked outside with Dave. "Is there something wrong?"
"No, not really, just a small request." We walked in silence for a moment, letting the night air soak through my skin. The moon was full and so bright that there were a number of shadows looming around. "There's a small group of students being collected to join a mission tomorrow night. You and your training partner Jason, along with a few other standout students will join a large group containing Silver Hearts and other slayers will break into a vampire HQs nearby. There will be a large number of vampires, many of which are very important in their world, and all in the same place. This is very rare and only happens practically once every fifty years and I want you to understand it's importance and also it's danger."

"I understand."
"Well, I'm glad. There's one more thing though Bailey," he paused and I nodded to get him to continue, "you are going undercover."