Page 31 of Cloak of the Vampire
Yet what choice did I have?
Ignoring my conscience screaming at me, I attacked.
At first, I purposefully aimed at all the places everyone else had—his face, his midsection, his crotch. And like with the others, he averted my attacks, one after the other. Once again, Logan looked bored. I had successfully led him to believe I wasn’t going to be more effective than anyone else had been. That I couldn’tpossiblydothatto him again.
His deduction would’ve been correct if it hadn’t been for the Auction. The idea that I could be sent to a different League, my chance to get even with Ragnor gone forever, pushed me past all reason.
And for the first time in three years, I allowed the monster to take over.
The First Behest wasGradus Diminutio. Slowly, I began moving heavily, my punches and kicks weakening until it was as if I was moving in slow motion. It happened gradually, and Logan, oblivious to what I was doing, simply slowed his pace to match mine.
By the time he realized my pace was too slow to be natural, it was too late for him. Because then I launched the Second Behest—Propero Incrementum—and in about two seconds, I accelerated my pace abruptly and propelled my fist into his nose.
Logan barely evaded the would-be hit, pivoting just in time for me to miss him by a hair. But he hadn’t seen it coming, and if I’d been a tad faster, I would’ve gotten him.
No matter. I still had a chance, even though Logan’s eyes narrowed with barely hidden fury. He knew what I was doing now, but knowing wouldn’t help him. This was the beauty of the Five Behests: unless you studied them, drilling them not just deep into your muscles but rather into your DNA, avoiding them was impossible.
Which was why the monster who taught me had been so good at the violent horrors he’d inflicted.
Before I let myself feel any sort of guilt, I used the momentum of my punch, turned, and feigned a round kick to his thighs. He jumped back, but I was already moving, letting my upper body rest while my legs worked—the Third Behest,Crura Implacabilis—and shot into the air, aiming my right knee toward his chin.
Logan was forced to squat, which was exactly what I needed since my right foot landed on the floor while my left shin was aiming for his head as if I were a soccer player and his head the black-and-white ball.
But I was still too slow, toohumanin my vampiric body, because Logan dodged, rolling back and climbing back to his feet. My body hadn’t expected him to dodge, and I found myself falling on my side, unable to regain balance.
Any and all strength left me in a whoosh of air, and I was suddenly beyond exhausted. It had been so long since I executed the Behests, and while I knew them like I knew my own name, I needed better strength and stamina to maintain them for longer than a minute, which was apparently the maximum amount of time I was able to hold on to the Behests in my current state.
I lay there for a few moments, trying to catch my breath. The nape of my neck tickled, and a shiver cascaded down my spine. Suddenly on alert, I sat up, my eyes darting around to see what caused such uneasy sensations in my body, but aside from my fellow students and Logan, there was no one present.
Logan was standing a few feet away, his eyes wide and burning a neon shade of cobalt while his chest moved up and down. He was out of air, breathless; it had taken everything in him to avoid my Behests, and it showed. “What the fuck was that?” he snarled, furious.
My gut clenched as I forced on fake confusion and said, “I was attacking.”
He glared daggers at me. He knew what it was. He knew what I had just done, and I could almost physically feel his hatred mingled with this old envy he couldn’t quite hide. “Dismissed.”
It was dinnertime, and my classmates were heading toward the cafeteria, but I didn’t join them. The first couple of hours were always the most crowded, and I preferred having my supper in the last half hour.
As I made my way through the empty corridor leading to my suite, a familiar voice called behind me, “Aileen.”
I tensed, paused, and turned around. Logan strode toward me, still in his gym clothes, eyes as bright as bolts of lightning. The enraged determination written on his face told me that if he hated me before, it was nothing compared to what he was feeling now.
“Logan,” I said quietly, folding my arms. “I—”
He was suddenly in my face, looming over me menacingly. “You used Iovan’sImperiumagainst me,” he growled, his body shaking with rage. “Again.”
That niggling regret was starting to kick in now, but I couldn’t let it show. “I had no choice,” I said quietly. His eyes flared with alarming rage. “I don’t regret it,” I added, lying to us both.
He stepped closer until he was a mere inch away, forcing me to tilt my head to look at his face. “You promised,” he spat, disgust making his eyes flash brighter. “Youpromisedyou would never,ever, use that against me again.”
He was right. Of course he was. And yet—“You’ve broken your promises too,” I reminded him, grimacing when shock slammed onto his face. “You promised to never leave me, remember?”
It was a low blow. I knew it wasn’t the physical pain that Logan was responding to. It was the fact that I had betrayed him ... again.
He suddenly moved back, looking at me with fury and dread, horror and anger. “You really think I would’ve stayed?” He hissed at the question, disbelief contorting his face. “You really think I’m that much of a glutton for punishment?”
“Logan—”
“No, Aileen.” He shook his head, glowering at me. “You don’t get to accuse me of breaking my promise whenyourpromises never meant shit.” Logan’s hands curled into fists. “After all this time, I expected some sort of decency from you. Shame on me for believing that you had changed. That you might be different. But I was stupid, and that’s on me. You are afuckingmonster. You are exactly what your father made you. And youcan’tchange because it’s who you are.”
