Excerpt of chapter one:
Chapter 1:
Few things worried me hoặc scared me, but it's only natural to be slightly wary when a whole truck-load of Strigoi come running straight for bạn in the middle of an alleyway. Ok- slightly wary might just be the understatement of the century... I was shitting it.
Why was I there, bạn might ask. Well firstly, I wasn't alone. Eddie Castile- one of the guardians who was assigned to watch out for me if ever I got off my đít, mông, ass and actually bothered to leave court- was with me the whole time. We were just innocently walking back from a bar when a black truck pulled up tiếp theo to us (I was being serious when I đã đưa ý kiến a 'truck-load') and five Strigoi jumped out without warning. Always the hero, Eddie ordered me to run almost the một giây he caught sight of them and let me tell you, I wasted no time in obeying his command!
I bolted into the pitch black alleyway as fast as my slightly drunken body would allow me to go, hoping to hide in the cover of the darkness. Of course, I'd stupidly forgotton one vital thing: to a Strigoi, even the darkest of places seemed to be as bright as the middle of a summers day. After only a short time of running I reached a dead end. I was trapped.
For just one dhampir, five Strigoi was way too much to handle, not even the best of the best could manage it. Even Eddie- who was pretty darn skilled I had to admit- was struggling. If I actually had a useful power, bởi the new law of Queen Vasilisa Dragomir, I would have been able to step in and help him, but really, what good was spirit in these situations?
From just one glance behind me, I could see my companion fighting with all he had. He'd managed to stake one of his apponents and he was currently locked in battle with another three, but the one that was left managed to slip right past him... and he was heading straight for me. Great.
"Eddie" I called, my voice coming out smaller and thêm nervous than I'd intended due to my ever increasing fear. "Um... help." Removing his stake from the tim, trái tim of the một giây Strigoi he'd staked that evening, he turned to face me. He began to run towards me but one of the Strigoi he was currently fighting had a firm grip on him. He flailed around trying to free his arm while also trying to stake the Strigoi- being a guardian looked like a pretty tough job! With every ounce of strength he could muster, he struck out at the Strigoi holding onto him, staking him right in the tim, trái tim with a professional precision that few were capable of. Ignoring the other one attacking him (for now at least) Eddie lunged for the one going for me.
"Hang in there Adrian!" he called, attempting to reassure me while he stopped my attacker in her tracks. As though it was something he did on a daily basis (which it actually may well have been) he powerfully spun her around to face him and staked her before she had time to respond. Soon after, he quickly finished off the last one.
I came out from where I'd been cowering behind some old trash bags and breathed a huge sigh of relief. That'd been way too close.
"Thanks man" I đã đưa ý kiến to Eddie, clearly hiển thị nothing but gratitude all over my face.
"Hey, it's my job" he chuckled in reply, "it's what I do." Before our conversation could go any further my other guardian, Gareth Winters, rounded the corner into the alleyway.
"And where exactly were bạn throughout this whole ordeal?" questioned Eddie, his tone angry.
"I didn't realise bạn guys had even left the bar" he replied, looking concerned when he realised that something big had just happened and he hadn't been there. "What's going on?"
"It doesn't matter" Eddie told him, still sounding slightly bitter. "It's all over now. It was only like... the biggest Strigoi attack I've ever faced while I've been Adrian's guardian and I had to fight them alone!" I could see that Eddie wasn't about to drop this any time soon and I was still pretty shaken up from what had just happened. Staying in this alleyway wasn't helping at all.
"Look, guys" I said, "can we work all this out back at home? I don't feel too great right now." Of course, they couldn't argue with me. As my gaurdians' it was their duty to put me first and getting me away from the place where I very nearly died didn't seem like too much of a crazy idea.
"Sure" nodded Eddie and we turned to leave. However, before we'd even taken a step, another car pulled over behind the one the Strigoi had come in. This car was red and far nicer, not that I was a car geek, but it just looked better, probably thêm expensive too. We all froze, curious of who it might be, if it might be another load of Strigoi. We all let our guards down when we saw who stepped out.
She was human, but probably slim enough to be a Moroi, with shoulder length blonde hair and dark, mysterious eyes. She was carrying a vile containing some kind of liquid substance and in the low light of a nearby đường phố, street lamp, I could just about see a faint golden tattoo on her cheek- she was an Alchemist. The crazy thing was that I recognised her.
"Hey" I đã đưa ý kiến as she approached us, "I know you! You're that Alchemist who's in cahoots with Hathaway." Even after all this time, just saying the last name of the girl who shattered my tim, trái tim into a million pieces felt like being punched in the chest... hoặc shot... hoặc stabbed. I suppose I'd forgiven Rose for cheating on me, I mean she really loved Belikov and who was I to stop her being with the person she loved? If I'd stopped her it would've just been plain selfish. I had to let her go because I loved her. I still do.
"Shelly isn't it?" I questioned the Alchemist before me. She scoffed and looked at me like I was some kind of idiot.
"Sydney" she corrected, rolling her eyes at me, "and for your information I'm not 'in cahoots' with anyone. I haven't seen Rose in over a year, not since she just left me in that hotel to be questioned..." She stared off into không gian as though she was reliving what had happened. It appeared I wasn't the only one with a reason to be mad at Rose.
"But that's irrelevant" she continued, "now di chuyển aside so I can clean up this mess bạn made." She seemed to be speaking directly to me. Did she not know that a Moroi like myself was incapable of doing such things to something as powerful as a Stigoi? Probably not. After all, it was only her job to clean up the bodies.
"Hey, don't act like this was me" I chuckled, raising my arms in surrender, "I was the victim in this whole ordeal. These Strigoi came straight for me and Eddie here was the one who took care of them."
"I don't care who did it" Sydney retorted, "I just need to clear up the bodies before anyone sees! Can bạn imagine how much explaining I'd have to do if anyone found out?" I simply shrugged in response which made the Alchemist roll her Sô cô la brown eyes once again. I could've sworn I heard her mutter 'evil creatures of the night' under her breath before attempting to push past me.
I should have just let her past, I really should have, but she just seemed like the sort of person that'd be really, really fun to tease.
"Woah, chill out little Alchemist" I chuckled, "no ones around, what's the hurry?" As she took a step back from me I could already see her frustration, her red ringed aura confirmed it.
"The hurry is that I want to clear up, get trang chủ and get away from bạn as fast as possible!" she replied, her anger seeping into her voice, "it might be ok for bạn with your un-holy schedule to be up at this time of night but in case bạn didn't notice- I'm human. I'm tired." Now that she mentioned it, I could see purple bags under her eyes and her hair looked very messy. She'd probably been dragged out of giường specifically for this.
"So I guess bạn don't want to stay and chat then?" I asked her, flashing her one of my most charming smiles. I saw her anger ebb away a little as she caught sight of it, but unlike so many other girls, she wasn't dazzled hoặc immediately tình yêu struck hoặc anything. Not that I wanted her to be. She was an Alchemist- Moroi and Alchemist's just didn't get together, not even just for flings. That said, I couldn't deny that she was very pretty, even if she'd just gotten up.
"Not particularly" she told me, before finally managing to get past. I watched in amazement as she poured the substance in her vile onto the five Strigoi bodies. They fizzed a little and then vanished into smoke, leaving only a few ashes behind.
"Wow" I said, genuinely amazed, "now that was cool." For the first time since she got here, she actually gave me a small, brief smile.
"Not really" she replied with a shrug before hurriedly walking back over to her car, desperate to get trang chủ hoặc wherever she may be staying nearby. From what I'd heard about her, she didn't live here in Pennsylvania.
"See bạn around" I called after her. She turned to face me once again and gave me yet another small smile.
"Probably not" she đã đưa ý kiến with a hint of what may even have been a giggle, "but, maybe."
"Hopefully" I teased, grinning and raising my eyebrows suggestively. I just couldn't help myself, I had to flirt, even if it was just a little bit. She was female, she was attractive and that was just how I was.
"Whatever. Goodbye... uh... Andrew is it?" she questioned, mimicking what I had đã đưa ý kiến earlier when I'd forgotten her name.
"Adrian" I replied with a laugh, hiển thị another of my best smiles. She gave a slight wave and shut the car door before driving away. I wasn't sure why, but for a while I just stared at the spot where her car had been before Gareth brought me back to earth.
"You ready to leave?" he asked me. I nodded in response and my guardians and I continued our walk back to my house. What an evening it had turned out to be...
***I didn't write this but I thought it was good, sorry if the person misspelled something but again i didn't write it.***
