I glanced up at Sebastian. Grinning with satisfaction and pride, he saluted me. I smiled.
“I’m Max, by the way,” Slap-head told me as he held out his hand.
I took it. “Sam. I prefer to call you Slap-head though.”
He laughed. “Whatever turns you on. Hey, Feeders are really rare. I heard that most Feeders go crazy and die after a few years because all the energy overwhelms them.”
Distracting me from responding, I caught Jared swerve and meet my eyes. His expression was thoughtful. For a small moment I thought about smiling at him. I’m actually not much of a smiler so that was odd.
“Good luck,” said the thorn-exhaling Keja vampire who suddenly appeared on my right.
I win a duel and suddenly everyone’s nicey, nicey. I simply nodded.
Finally the three commanders came to stand before the line of potential recruits. Jared’s gaze settled on each one of us for a few seconds before he spoke. “Between the three of us, we have selected three of you to join my squad. The rest of you will be required to return home imminently.” He walked to the front of the line and then began a slow walk passed the recruits. He stopped in front of the Pagori with the power to deflect and pointed at him with a congratulatory look on his gorgeous face. “Well done.” Next he stopped at Max and pointed. No surprise there – Max’s power to cause sensory deprivation was really good. Then Jared came to the end of the line, standing between myself and the thorn-exhaling Keja. He looked at each of us, then slowly raised his hand, extended his index finger...and pointed at the Keja.
What a fucking little shit.
Instantly there were murmurs and gasps, whether those were of surprise or disagreement I didn’t know. I didn’t care to find out. “Congratulations,” I said to Max and the Keja beside me. Then I twirled sharply and paced away.
“Sam!” Max caught up with me and sighed. “You should have gotten a place. You deserved it more than any of us.”
“It’s alright,” I said though my tone made it clear that it wasn’t. I let my eyes track down Jared who was staring at me with a crease between his eyebrows. As I spoke to Max I continued to look hard at Jared, “I wouldn’t want to work for a sexist twat anyway.”
As I stormed away, I couldn’t decide what incensed me more; the fact that I hadn’t been given a place in the legion even after proving myself, or the fact that this bothered me so much. It was now that I realised that I hadn’t just wanted a place to spite Victor or to escape him, or even to annoy Jared. The truth was that I’d wanted to be a part of the picture that Sebastian had tried selling me, to make the most out of the life I now had whether it had been my choosing or not. I wanted to be part of something important, to have a purpose beyond Victor’s plans for me.#p#分页标题#e#
Sebastian travelled with vampire speed to my side. “Sam, I -”
“It’s fine. Really.” But I’d said it too sharply, I didn’t sound in the least bit convincing.
“I intend to dispute Jared’s decision. His judgement was impaired by his -”
“Really Sebastian don’t bother,” I advised him gently as we entered the museum-like house. “If I had to see Jared’s ugly mug every day, I’d probably stake him.”
“Yes, I’d imagine you would,” agreed an amused, unfamiliar voice before me. It belonged to a Latino-looking Keja, though he spoke in a very clear American accent, with shoulder length, thick, coal-black hair and the widest eyes. Everything about the way he conducted himself while he slowly circled me spoke of pure power. This had to be the Grand High Master himself. Flanking him were two Pagori vampires, both looked robotic and fearless.
Sebastian whispered down my ear, “This is the Grand High -”
“Oh I know,” I said, irritated, “I’m not thick.” I simply gave the Big Man a half-smile. I knew I wasn’t being very respectful but he couldn’t do anything worse to me than what Victor would do when he found out what I’d done. No doubt my good ole Sire would taunt me about how I wasn’t successful.
“Miss Samantha Parker,” he greeted. “I am Antonio.”
“Well, hi. And bye.” I proceeded to walk passed him.
“Might I have a few moments of your time?” Antonio asked.
I twirled round intending to tell him no, he could do a run and jump because I was getting out of this place that was stuck in the 1700s. But then he smiled at me and his eyes held tightly to mine. Suddenly I didn’t feel so angry anymore. Damn the Keja hypnotic beauty! “Look, I don’t mean to be rude, it’s just that I have to be getting back.”