An order from the general was absolute and a strict punishment awaited those who disobeyed them. Although there weren't many rules when it came to what happened between the students themselves, the same couldn't be said for those who were above them.
If you broke the rules enough times, then you would be led to an underground dungeon. The school couldn't just kick you out. Those who went in almost never came back out, and the ones who did come back, came as different people.
There was also a rumour that had been going around that the students who were sent into the dungeon came back without any abilities at all.
Because of this, even Vorden was worried about going up against a general of the school. Perhaps he could use his family's power to influence the military's decision about Duke, but that would require evidence and a lot more than a single testimony from Peter.
So the group had no choice but to follow Duke's command.
"What should I do?" Peter asked as he walked back to the military base with the other two.
"We'll follow along as far as we can go, but if they see you with us then they'll think you're no longer on their side. Just agree to whatever they ask of you for now and we can figure it out later," Vorden said.
Just then, as they were about to exit the forest, Vorden suggested that Peter walk up ahead while they followed him from behind. They needed to be extra careful just in case, but before Peter left the forest Vorden had a few words to say.
"Peter, I'm taking my chances with you this time. I don't know why but Quinn seems to completely trust you, and while I have forgiven you, it doesn't mean I trust you. Not yet, or maybe ever."
Layla nudged Vorden in the ribs. "Give the guy a break will you?" She whispered, "He went through a near death experience, and now he's just been told that he's a ghoul. You don't have to say out loud what he already knows." She gave Peter an encouraging smile.
However, Vorden was dead serious; he still saw Peter as a liability and if it wasn't for Quinn, he would have gotten rid of him by now.
They had finally arrived at the second year building which was stationed on the east side of the school. From this point on, Vorden and Layla could no longer follow as there were second year students standing just outside, and they didn't have a good reason.
Still, Peter managed to walk straight past the two second year students, as they had been expecting him, but Vorden and Layla knew they couldn't because they would be stopped.
Peter entered the building and walked into Duke's office.
"Please, come and sit down, Peter," Duke said as he closed the door behind him before sitting back in his seat.
"It seems the two of us haven't been able to talk since the last task I had set for you." Duke then went under his desk and pulled out several books and placed them on the table. There were three earth ability books numbered from two, up to four.
"Although things didn't go quite according to plan, you still held up your end of the bargain, and I don't want to seem like a person who doesn't keep his promises," he said smiling.
If Peter didn't notice it before, he could definitely notice it now, there was something sinister about Duke's smile.
'Just why was he trying so hard to get rid of Vorden in the first place?' Peter thought. Isn't everyone on the same side, to fight against the Dalki? But Peter remembered Vorden's words and grabbed the books.
"Thank you sir, is there anything else you would like me to do?" Peter asked.
"We have a visitor next week and I'm going to need you to learn the earth ability up to level four. It's why I also gave you books two and three. It should be easier for you to learn the abilities quickly if you do them step by step. In a couple of weeks, come back and report to me. You are dismissed."
Peter then bowed down to the general before leaving the room.
'Looks like I've been able to convert another one. In the end, everyone wants to be at the top,' The Duke thought.
As Peter left the room, he spotted Earl waiting just outside to be called in. "What are you looking at you dog!" He snapped back. Earl still hadn't recovered from what Vorden had done to him before the outing, and because he was weaker than Vorden, he couldn't take it out on him. So he decided to take it out on Peter instead.
Hearing those words and seeing Earl again, sudden images started to appear in his head, unpleasant images, very unpleasant.
"Hey, I know. Why don't you wait for me out back after this? Me and the boys have a little surprise for you," Earl said.
"Whatever you say, Earl." Peter replied, secretly smiling on the inside.
As Peter walked down the hallway and towards the back exit of the school he couldn't suppress the smile that suddenly appeared on his face. "I'll be waiting for you alright."
*****
While the others were busy doing their own thing, Erin had eventually calmed down from it all. She thought back and had to admit that even if Quinn had hidden his powers in the end, he had saved their lives from the Dalki, she couldn't stay upset about not coming first.
When she thought back to the image of the Dalki, her body started to shiver uncontrollably.
'Calm down Erin, deep breaths.' She thought to herself.
She had regained her composure, but now she started to think about Quinn a bit more. Just what was a vampire actually?
Even though Layla had tried her best to explain it, it really wasn't something she could comprehend. It didn't sound like an ability, but more like an entirely different species altogether. But the strangest thing of it all was what species could survive only on the blood of humans?
'Maybe I can think of them as humanoid mosquitoes. Yeah, that sounds right. They're humanoid mosquitoes.' Erin thought to convince herself.
If there were no humans how would vampires survive and what would happen to Quinn if he didn't get any blood? While she was fine with keeping Quinn's identity a secret, she was nervous about covering her own back, and curious to see just how dangerous this "vampire" thing actually was.
Eventually, that led her to the library. At first, Erin went down the nonfiction aisle to see if there was anything she could find, but there was nothing. There were no vampires and there didn't seem to be anything close to describing them in the first place.
If it wasn't in any of the official records, it was slowly starting to make sense to her why everyone wanted her to keep it a secret.
This left her with no choice but to head to the fiction section and nearly instantly, she found several novels about vampires. But just from looking at the covers, she found it really hard to tell what vampires were.
"Vampire: The Last Blood"
"Bite Me or Love Me"
"Thicker Than Blood"
Some of the covers even seemed to have men in suggestive poses, while other books deemed Vampires as vicious killers. But the one thing they all had in common was the theme around blood. Erin decided to just pick up one of the books at random.
She picked up the book titled, 'Bite Me or Love Me'
She stood there in the aisle and started reading it, but before she knew it, she couldn't put the book down. "My word, what are they doing?" Just from reading the novel, her face started to go red.
"So, you're interested in vampires, huh?" A boy's voice said, coming from her left side.
As she turned her head to see who it was, she could see a student, one she hadn't come across before, or maybe she had. Erin had a bad habit of only remembering people she cared about. But when looking at this boy she had a feeling if she had seen him she would have remembered him, as something was pulling her towards him.
"I didn't expect to see a beautiful girl like you here," The boy said as he swept back his black hair. "The name's Fex. Nice to meet you."
****
Want another mass release? Then remember to vote. Stone goals are in the author notes below!