Page 89 of Slayer

FIFTEEN

My palms were sweaty and my legs weak as I walked over to the line of weapons laid out before us, the metal catching the overhead lights in dull flashes. It was time to take our hunter rune exam to hopefully get our hunter marks if we passed. How had a month already gone by? Luna and Harper had been sweet enough to train with me on the rooftop of our dorm every night, the concrete cold beneath our bare feet, the wind whipping at our hair, but I didn’t feel ready. The stupid vampire attacks had closed down the real training with professors, and I was a ball of nerves, my stomach tight and hollow all at once.

We were allowed to take two weapons in. Asher had chosen the long sword and the stake, calm and decisive like he always was. I chose a stake and then stood there, frozen, trying to decide on my next weapon. Second stake? Sword? Dagger? Harpoon gun? Mace? There were too many options. Was that a chainsaw? Eww.

Celia was assisting and helping us pick, moving down the line with quiet confidence. It was nice of her to have me over to her house a few times for private training, but I could see how tired she was now. Bags under her eyes, movements slower, shoulders heavier. She worked the night shift in New York City and then helped patrol the school. It was a lot.

“What are you thinking, Stella? Follow those instincts,” she told me.

I peered at the harpoon gun. I mean yeah, that was an amazing weapon, but heavy and hard to aim with, especially if something was already on top of me.

The sword was good too, but I just wasn’t there yet. Not like Asher. I was a better street fighter, excelling at hand-to-hand combat, reacting instead of calculating.

I eyed a set of brass knuckles with spikes on the end and thought of how many times vampires had gotten close to me, close enough to bite. I was good with punching; even Asher said so. It wouldn’t kill a vamp, but it would stun or hurt them enough to get them off me so I could finish the job with my stake.

I picked up the brass knuckles and slid them over my fingers.

Perfect fit.

“Good choice.” Celia winked.

The nerves in my gut settled a little, and I peered around at the ten other students with us tonight, all standing stiffly with their chosen weapons. We were a small group that statistically wouldn’t end up with all of us passing this test. I glanced at Asher. He was cool, calm, and collected, shoulders loose, jaw set. If he hadn’t come after me on my birthday, he would have totally passed his test and had his hunter marks by now. He’d killed more vampires since then than I could count. But me… I had yet to stake one of these undead properly. In fact, I could be seriously hurt tonight and lose a limb or something and be relegated to a desk job without ever even being given the chance to be a hunter. Or worse, I could be turned into a vampire. The thought made my skin prickle, my mind race, and my heart thump wildly in my chest. I suddenly felt sick and hot.

I need air.

I stumbled outside, panting as the cool night air hit my face and I tried to control my breathing, the stone under my boots grounding me. I thought I was having a panic attack, unable to stop the thoughts racing through my mind.

I am totally going to fail at this. What am I thinking? I’d known of this life for only a month. A month and I am going to be tested among people who’d grown up and trained for this their entire lives.

I heard footsteps behind me and spun, tears filling my eyes as ragged gasps of air escaped me. I barely registered the fact that it was Asher before his hands were cupping my face. He drew me closer to him, and like magic, the storm inside me was chased away. Staring into those deep green eyes, feeling his warm hands steady me, I was suddenly so focused, the world narrowing down to just us.

“I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you,” he breathed, and we were so close his breath fell against my lips. I could almost taste it, the faint hint of mint, which emptied my mind completely of all vampire-related anxiety and replaced it with a new anxiety.

“I’m going to fail.” I spoke my biggest fear out loud.

He shook his head, still cupping my face, though softer now. “You got this, Tyson.”

A smile broke through my panic, and my stomach did somersaults.

Asher glanced at my lips and then dropped my face suddenly like it was a hot stone. I’d never felt more pulled magnetically to someone in my entire life.

But of course, he was taken. By a really sweet girl too.

“Just focus on the task. Two vamps dead tonight and we get our marks tomorrow,” he told me.

I nodded once, letting out a steady breath.

Two vampires with extreme speed and strength who wanted to drink me like a spiked hot chocolate. No biggie. But I was still unsure, palming my stake to get the right adjustment and angle.

He saw me fiddling and closed the space between us. Wrapping his fingers around my hand, he brought up the tip of my stake and pressed it to his chest, three inches to the left of dead center.

“Here,” he said. Then he moved it a few inches to the right. “Not here.”

He moved it back to where his heart was, and I swore I felt it thunder beneath the metal, sending vibrations through the weapon and into my fingertips.

“Here,” he said again.

“Let’s do this,” I confirmed, and he stepped away from me with a nod.