Chapter Two
GRACE
“This is stupid. I bet Vince is testing us. It must be a drill,” Craig protested in his heavy accent.
Craig was from the Black Diamond Kingdom and came to Sanabria to study in the most prestigious academy of all the Alorya Continent.
Grace shook her head. “Vincent was serious when he told us that we had trespassers. The cameras picked up movements, and the silent alarms were triggered near the river.”
“Vampires wouldn’t dare to come here,” he muttered. “Plus, why do you call your grandfather by his first name? You’re strange.”
Grace rolled her eyes. “When we are training or on a mission, he’s not my grandfather but my superior.”
“Then call him professor.”
“You were the one calling him Vince in the first place,” Grace pointed out with an exasperated sigh.
Andrea, in her wolf form, turned around and snarled at them.
“Andrea’s right,” Grace mumbled to Craig. “We need to stay alert. We have a lot of ground to cover, and your whining is disrupting our hearing ability.”
“If there were vampires, Andrea and Lori would have sensed them by now. They’re in their wolf form, after all.”
“They might be using cloaking mechanisms to mask their scent,” Grace reminded him, fighting back the need to slap the back of his head.
Of all the students, her grandfather had to assign Craig to her team.
Stopping, she held up one closed hand, an indication for everybody to stop walking and talking. A thick fog was forming up ahead, even her heightened sense of sight was straining against the mist.
Grace, I think I saw something.Michael, the other team leader, spoke via their mind link.
Michael, we are under strict instructions not to talk telepathically.She scowled.
Some vampires were able to tap into the telepathic waves and listen to their conversation.
The top students had split into two groups to track down the trespassers. Grace was the team leader of hers while Michael was guiding the other group and scouting the premises of the academy.
Andrea bounced on the balls of her feet. Her bestie’s fur was a rich brown with a dark patch above her eyes. Grace patted her head and looked at where Andrea was staring.
“I can’t see anything,” she mumbled.
“We would cover more ground if we split into two more groups. I’ll go with Lori while you stay with Andrea,” Craig suggested.
“That’s not going to happen. Mason and Trish were left behind protecting the academy. We are not splitting and making ourselves vulnerable. Plus, the professor said I was the leader. Therefore, you need to obey my orders, not the other way around.”
Craig sneered but said nothing else.
In silence, they entered farther into the woods.
The temperature dropped suddenly, and Grace rubbed her arms at the unusual coldness that seemed to cling to her skin. Maybe her angelical sense was warning her about the danger since her werewolf blood wasn’t enough to fight the cold.
“Did Michael say anything else?” Craig whispered closer.
Grace shook her head. “Can you feel them?”
The hair on the back of her neck stood up. Lori and Andrea stopped and snarled at the darkness.
“They’re here,” Craig muttered. “We should call for back up.”