Page 15 of Ever Dark Academy: Vol. 1

The doors to the church were thrust open and a young man shouldered his way in. When he saw Ryder and Demos standing there in black leather, he froze then his eyes widened.

He was breathing hard as if he had been running full out. The scent of blood was heavy upon him though it was not his. The young man reached behind his back. Both him and Demos stilled, but then the young man was thrusting out a bloody envelope towards him. It was the envelope that contained the location to this church. A location for the student Gregory Starn to come to meet them.

“You are not Gregory Starn,” Ryder stated, not taking the envelope.

“No, he’s dead,” the young man told him, “and his killers are after me.”

TRUTH AND LIES

The Vampire who had spoken to him grasped Grayson’s biceps with both hands and lifted him off the floor. Grayson let out a yelp of surprise, but the Vampire simply placed Grayson physically behind him, and then used his own body as a shield from anyone who might come through the front doors of the church. Before Grayson had realized that this Vampire was simply moving him to protect him, he had stiffened and a broken pew near him had shifted as his gift activated.

The Black Vampire’s head shot towards the sound. The pew was still firmly on the ground, but Grayson could have swung it like a bat at the Vampires’ heads if he had needed to. But he didn’t need to. They weren’t his enemies. Not yet anyways. The Black Vampire turned back to Grayson and frowned. Somehow he suspected that Grayson was the cause of the pew shifting.

They’re Vampires. They can believe in the paranormal because they are paranormal, Grayson thought.

Unease flitted through him. The female Vampire had seemed awfully interested in him because of his gift. Would these Vampires also be? But he let the pew go from his mental grasp, careful not to let it simply fall with a bang, as his strength was already at a low ebb. He didn’t want to attract the Black Vampire’s attention again either. He needed these creatures on his side. He was in no fit state to fight himself.

Both of these Vampires were huge and moved with the grace of big cats. When he’d first seen them he’d known exactly what they were. He’d wondered how people hadn’t realized that Vampires existed before they revealed their own existence to the world.

Predators through and through. Sleek predators with the facade of civilization to them, but wild somehow, Grayson had thought.

And these two were beautiful, which made their predatoriness that much more dangerous. The Black Vampire had skin as dark and smooth as ebony. That skin covered rippling muscles. He had a broad, emotive face and an intelligent brow, which meant he could put those muscles to good use in a fight. He wasn’t a blunt instrument by any means, but a strategist. That would be needed against the female Vampire.

The bearded Vampire was massive all over. His bare chest, which was exposed almost completely by the leather jacket he wore alone with no shirt underneath, was cut like a diamond. There looked to be no spare fat on him. He had chiseled features and generous lips that his neatly trimmed beard didn’t hide. His eyes were silver, as all Vampire eyes were except for King Daemon and Prince Julian’s, but there was a warmth in them that Grayson had not expected to see. But it was likely a ruse to draw prey in.

Despite the two Vampires clearly being born of different parents, there was something alike in them both. Grayson would have called them brothers. He’d been an only child but he’d always wished he’d had a brother. Someone to look after him and someone for him to look up to. But he’d always been on his own. Not even his parents had been there to help him. He hadn’t expected Vampires to be so close to one another. But these ones were.

Yet even if they were friends to each other–and despite the warmth in those eyes now–the moment the bearded Vampire had pointed out that he was not Gregory Starn, Grayson knew that lying was not an option. With those powerful muscles they could have simply ripped him apart without breaking a sweat.

It had been the right move nevertheless. Any lie he could have come up with wouldn’t have held water for long. Clearly, they knew what Gregory Starn looked like. He and the dead man bore no resemblance whatsoever to one another. He was sure there were other safeguards as well to make certain that only people who belonged in the Ever Dark got in, but a picture of the student was the easiest way to confirm an identity.

Besides, if he’d lied then there would have been too many questions and he was sure that the female Vampire and her cohorts were on his tail. He’d impaled her on the shelf. She was wounded badly, but he knew that she wouldn’t let that stop her. She’d likely killed again so that the blood of some other innocent could heal her wounds completely. The only question was whether would they follow him in here when there were others of their kind present or would they slink away? If it was the latter, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do.

“We need to get him through the gate, Demos,” the bearded Vampire said.

“Well, this evening has just gotten better and better, hasn’t it, Ryder?” The Vampire named Demos asked with a grunt of amusement. “I wonder if we’ll get demerits or something by sending an uninvited human to Nightvallen!”

“Yeah, it’s been a damned blast and they can give us all the demerits they want to. Doesn’t matter if we’re in last place,” the Vampire named Ryder gritted out. His silver eyes focused on Grayson. “We’re sending you to the Ever Dark. Going through the gate is… unpleasant. But you’ll be fine–”

“I’m not going to the Ever Dark!” Grayson nearly shouted.

His plan had been to find some more Vampires to deal with the Sect of Dawn. He’d found them. He needed to go no farther into the Vampire World. He just wanted to be free of them.

Ryder lifted a thick eyebrow in amusement. “Why not? Not that you have a choice about it.”

Grayson’s cheeks heated and he mentally was touching that pew again. But those eyes were kind. He grimaced and let it go as he growled out, “I’m not a wannabe Vampire! I just want you two to take care of the ones coming after me and then I’ll be on my way.”

Demos let out a choked laugh and shared a disbelieving look with Ryder before staring Grayson dead in the eye. “Be on your way, will you? I don’t think so, little one. There are questions that need answering. Ones like how you managed to not get killed and made your way here when a Vampire was after you.”

Alarm spiked in Grayson. He licked suddenly dry lips. What kind of Vampires were these? Were they the Eyros ones that could read minds? Even if they weren’t, he was sure that there would be tons of those in the Ever Dark. They’d know what he could do and then they’d… he didn’t know what they’d do to him. But he was sure it wouldn’t be good. It was never good when his gift was revealed. And that meant he couldn’t explain anything about what had really happened at the shop.

“They were busy killing other people so I ran,” Grayson lied.

They’d already killed everyone but him. He’d just staked their leader and kept the other two out with a jammed door.

“You out ran a Vampire?” Demos chuckled again even as his silver eyes narrowed with suspicion. “You just keep bringing up more and more questions with every word you say, little one.”

“They were busy like I said!” Grayson snapped. “They didn’t come after me right away. I managed to lose them.”

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