The Keeper's Vow (17 page)

“Oh!” Katie nodded. Of course, he’s a
vampire who acts like he’s lived a life full of back alley deals.
Where did he get money from? The school uniforms were expensive.
Katie heard Lucinda offer to pay more than twice. Then again maybe
he had a job. She would have asked if he wasn’t so shady when it
came to talking about himself.

“I swear if he beats me in targets I’m going
to scratch out his eyes,” Allison said, stretching her arms. One of
the parents moved away from her when she cracked her neck.

Katie smiled. “You’re kind of scaring me,
and everyone else right now.”

“Can’t win if you’re not in the zone,”
Allison said as the door opened again.

Katie gaped as she walked out into a room
the size of the track field. It was set up like a maze. Maybe an
obstacle course? Though, the course itself was less impressive than
the entire room she never knew was there.

“We’re underground?” Katie said, following
everyone like a lost kid in a crowd.

“Yeah, it’s the weapons room. We don’t
really use it until next year. And today of course. Come pick out
your gun.”

Katie stopped dead in her tracks. Gun? The
hell? Did they expect her to shoot targets? They had kids shooting
guns?
Her
shooting guns? Didn’t they know she was liable to
kill someone?

“—I think I want pink—Kay?” Allison laughed
at her. “Kay? You look totally freaked out right now. It’s a
paintball gun. You have to pick your color.”

Katie breathed. She was relieved, but that
didn’t stop her dread of losing yet another event. She wasn’t that
good at shooting either. She picked the color yellow at random.
Funny enough, Tristan’s favorite color.
Or no, yellow was just
one of them.

When everyone made it down to the room, Mr
Rhineheart split the students into five groups. Katie was in the
last group. She was glad this time, she had a chance to watch
everyone else go first. She could study what they did and maybe use
it to her advantage.

Brian was in the first group and he missed
all but two targets. He laughed about it during and after. Katie
wondered if he would still have taken it so lightly if Will and
Lucinda were there. All the other parents seemed to root their kids
on seriously, and the other kids took it just as serious.

Allison and Tristan were in the second
group. They both shot every target beating last years record.
Allison lost to Tristan by three seconds. Allison taunted him as
they put their guns away.

“You know, I don’t count your wins because
it’s
cheating
,” Allison said, contorting her face. She
looked a little deranged.

“You don’t count my wins because you’re a
sore loser. Besides, I really don’t care.”

“Then why don’t you just lose!” Allison
poked him in the chest and Katie’s stomach slightly twinged.

“Would that make you feel better? Or would
you feel better knowing your real competition is with someone like
me?”

Allison opened her mouth to say something
but stopped short. “You know what, Tristan. I’ll take that as a
compliment.”

“Take it however you want. I really don’t
care.” Tristan moved toward Katie, but didn’t say anything when he
stood next to her. Allison looked pleased enough, but whenever she
looked at the parents standing on the side shouting at their kids
that dangerous look would cut across her face again.

It was Katie’s turn. She put on her goggles
and she felt like everyone was watching her, mainly because she’d
tripped over her feet when she stood at the starting line. She
concentrated. At the start she was supposed to shoot the first
target, but then duck at the on coming blue paint that pelted Brian
across the face. The second target she should miss because it was
an old lady. Then she’d hurry to the third one that she was
supposed to shoot, then the fourth—

Mr. Rhineheart blew the whistle.

Katie shoot at the first one but missed it.
She ran to the second one and forgot about the blue paint that
stung as it hit her face. She ran through the third one and tripped
over a cable. A Cable? Who leaves that lying around.

“Move.” A girl spat at her. Katie got up and
kept going. She missed all the targets and accidentally shot a girl
on the side of her head. Yellow paint splattered across her black
hair.

“Bitch.” The girl screamed, but she kept
running through the course.

When it was over Katie wanted to die, and
the girl she shot, probably wanted to be the one to kill her.

“That was horrific,” she heard a lady say to
another mom. She wanted to “accidentally” let off a few rounds of
yellow on her stupid pretty, green blouse.

Tristan grabbed the gun from her. “Don’t
listen to her. You might have missed all the targets, but you did
manage to shoot a moving one.”

Was that suppose to make her feel
better?

Mr. Rhineheart broke them for lunch. Katie,
Tristan, and Allison went to her locker to grab the lunch bag
Lucinda had given her. It was unsaid, but they were officially
team, Screw Preliminaries. Neither of them had to say it out loud,
it was in the way Allison stared at everyone with their parents in
contempt, the way Tristan looked bored to death, and Katie’s score
card.

They sat in silence until Allison said, “You
know what. Screw this. I don’t care if my dad is a douchebag who
won’t watch his daughter cream everyone except for this cheating
asshole—no offense. I’m going to break every record. When his
daughter is on the way to winning gold medals in the olympics, I’ll
tell everyone it started on this day, when my father abandoned me.”
Allison laughed a little manically. It was contagious.

Katie laughed, “And when I go into the
genius world book for most epic fails in a competition, I’ll tell
them it all started when I shot a girl in the head with a yellow
paint.”

“A little morbid. We’ll work on it,” Allison
said, pulling out three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, an
apple, and two bottles of water.

“You’re going to eat all of that?” Tristan
said.

“Got a problem?” Allison was obviously still
very
confrontational.

Katie opened the bag Lucinda packed and
pulled out four sandwiches two bananas two waters and two fruit
cups. Katie gave half to Tristan and he pushed it aside.

“Aren’t you going to eat anything,” she
said, feeling like she was missing something obvious.

He stared at her. He smiled just enough to
show her his teeth. His tongue ran across his canines.

It was the first time, in a long time, Katie
had ever felt like he was far beyond a moody teenage boy. They
weren’t fangs exactly, no sharper than her canines, but still, the
way his tongue dragged across it—it was animalistic.

Tristan scoffed. “You’re making too much of
it,” he said under his breath.

“Woah!” Allison said, looking between them.
“You just did
it,
didn’t you?” She lowered her voice, “You
read her mind. That’s
so
freaky, and
cool
.”

Katie focused on her sandwich, it was turkey
and swiss. Lucinda always made good sandwiches, but she could never
remember that Katie hated tomatoes.

Being in the gym made Katie want to puke up
her lunch. Some students were already putting on padding. It meant
that they were going to fight. What else did they need mats, pads,
and helmets for? Not to mention, “Sensei Steve” was making sure
students where wearing their chest pads correctly.

“This is probably the only event you might
be able to score in,” Tristan said. They sat down on the bleachers.
Allison was already changing into gear. Katie looked at the piece
of paper one of the parents handed out to her as she entered the
gym. It was a bracket. She had to fight at the third mat in fifteen
minutes. She was fighting a boy named Adam. “You only have to get
three hits. Your worst quality is you’re slow, but you can land
hits if you try hard enough. These people aren’t that good.”

Katie gaped as she watched a boy do a Karate
kick in the air. It was like a movie. She laughed out loud. “I’m
not only going to lose, I’m going to get the bejeezus beat out of
me. Wonderful!”

Tristan patted her on the back. It sent a
pulse through her. It always caught her off guard when he touched
her.

“Come on.” He lead her to the third mat. She
started putting on the gear while two girls fought. They screamed a
lot and Katie hoped she didn’t have to make the same weird sounds.
“You’re doing it wrong,” Tristan said, pulling off one of her arm
pads. “You have to be able to move. Unless you
want
to
lose.” She stood still as he re-strapped the arm pads. Next were
her legs. He watched her do it, only offering directions such as
lower or higher. Last was her chest padding, and she managed to get
her arms through, but felt like a small child when Tristan moved
behind her and tied them.

Some people watched him tie her up and she
felt embarrassed and proud. She didn’t know why and tried to bury
it. Maybe because everyone else had parents helping and they just
had each other. She flushed and could feel heat fill her at the
thought. He made no sound or movement to show he was listening.

She wanted to focus on the fight, but she
couldn’t.

“Just remember not to cross your legs. You
do that a lot—Stay loose. You move better when you’re loose. Or
angry.”

How did he know that? They’d only been
practicing for four days if she counted the unsupervised session at
the park yesterday. For four days, all he did was show her a move
and beat her up. She laughed at the thought. She’d just spent four
days straight getting beat up by the guy who was checking her
pads.

He jerked a little and she could tell he was
trying to pretend he hadn’t heard that.

“You talk to much,” he said. She pretended
to punched him and he brushed her hands away. “Don’t waste your
energy.”

“How do you do that?” He was too good.

“Are you ready, Katie-san?” Steve Sensei
asked abruptly. It took a second for Katie to realize he was
talking to her. “On the mat then.”

As Katie took a deep breath she heard
Lucinda and Will cheering Allison on in her match.

“Stay loose.” Tristan said. Katie looked
back at him. Easier said than done.

Adam. It was the guy who’d asked her if she
was a new student. He was the guy she had been a complete turd to.
He gave her a small smile. Maybe he had forgotten. Maybe he was
nice, if he weren’t wearing a helmet and sizing her up. They shook
hands and it started.

He got the first hit immediately, but she
moved fast enough for him to miss the second.

“Come on Katalina, quicker than that,” she
heard Tristan say. She flexed her hands. If she could hit Tristan
she could hit this guy.

Adam moved in for the second hit and Katie
tried to side step. She crossed over one of her legs and Adam hit
her with a kick. She fell to the mat.

“Katalina, if you want to lose have the
decency not to do it on your back.”

Katie got up. Was Tristan trying to motivate
her or kill her self-esteem?

“Move faster or lose faster. Stop wasting
time,” Tristan said.

“Come on man, she’s new,” Adam said, looking
at Tristan. Katie took Adam’s momentary distraction as an open and
punched him on his left arm.

“Sorry,” she mumbled.

Adam’s dad yelled for him to hurry up and
finish her.
What a gentleman.
Katie readied herself for
another move, but Adam was moving before she could dodge and he
landed a kick on her right leg. She at least caught herself before
she fell.

Steve sensei called the match. Adam won.
Tristan smiled. It was a real smile. She smiled too. She hit him.
She got one hit. Granted it was a cheap shot while he wasn’t
looking, but still she hit him.

“Doesn’t matter. A hit is a hit. Never take
your eyes off your opponent unless they’re dead.”

Katie shifted her eyes. Tristan had a way
with words.

Katie didn’t have another match for
forty-five minutes. She watched Tristan fight four times. The
matches never lasted more than a minute and each time he’d push the
other person to the side and hit them. His fourth fight was with
Brian. Katie had found a seat next to Will and Lucinda. She wasn’t
the only one who didn’t want to watch it.

Tristan changed. His eyes burned, and for
the first time that day Brian didn’t open his mouth to laugh. Brian
circled the mat hesitant to approach Tristan. Tristan waited
patiently watching Brian. When Brian made his first move, Tristan
blocked his hit and punched him in the chest so hard he hit the
ground.

“Come on Brian,” Will said. Lucinda
reprimand Will.

“You know—”

“Lucy, they have to fight it out sooner or
later. Might as well be now.”

Brian got up and moved in quick. Tristan
dropped down and kicked Brian’s legs from out under him. Brian
landed flat on his back with a single thud.

Almost everyone was watching this match the
gym was quiet except for a few yells and the sound of feet hitting
mats. She could feel an electric pulse in her. It was like a
burning fire. It was feeding on her soul. She wanted to break
Brian—

Katie chocked on her own breath. Tristan.
She could feel him, his violence was overwhelming her. This was
what anger felt like. She should say something. Stop the match.
Brian was no equal for that. What if Tristan wanted to
really
hurt him.

It was too late. As Brian stood up for the
final time, Tristan moved in, spun Brian around and smacked his
back. Brian hit the ground and it echoed.

“Tristan!” Lucinda shouted, but Will held
her back.

“You go over there and Brian will never get
up.”

“Foul!” Steve sensei said. “One point to
Brian-san.”

Katie held her breath. She had hoped it was
over. She could feel sick satisfaction at watching him stand up. It
made her heart quicken a little— No not hers,
Tristan’s
, but
she couldn’t tell the difference. It was hard to separate her
emotions from his. Was this how it felt for him? Like an alien
invasion.