Chapter 28

Anton Trezman had just finished his strategy session with his most advanced strategists. Their times had all improved but they still had to work on teamwork. The teacher smiled at them, "Well done. That only took you an hour. You have to work on trusting each other and stop relying on your lycanthrope abilities to do all of your work for you." As he was watching them throughout the simulation, he noticed that Avril did not use any lycanthrope abilities, but she did however use her fighting skills. This was something he was trying to enforce. He released his students warmly and made his way back up to the block where they kept new, untamed lycans for the first day or in this case, where they kept vampire hostages. It was Anton’s duty to keep an eye on Ekaterina, a vampire whom Saint Rurik’s Academy had been holding hostage in order to get some idea of what the vampires had been planning for the Night of the Moon - the night that could change everything for both the vampire and the lycan. He was forced to have this duty because it had been his idea and he had been regretting it ever since.

When he climbed up to the prison block of the Academy and found her cell, he approached her and smiled,

"Hello, Ekaterina,"

"Anton! You’re back. I was getting bored by myself," she smiled playfully; "I thought you’d never return and I was starting to get worried!" He rolled his eyes. She is such a child, he thought to himself, but he humoured her.

"Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it." She smiled at his response, "Now, are you ready to tell me the information I need now?" She shook her head, smiling mischievously,

"Oh, very cunning, Anton; I’m impressed. I’m not going to give you the information you want until you let me out." Ekaterina amused Anton. She was so playful that she was almost childlike. Smiling to himself, Anton told her in a low voice,

"You know I can’t do that because we both know that you won’t."

"Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that; do you really know me that well?" Anton shook his head,

"You’re all the same," he mused darkly,

"Let me out of this cage and I can show you that I’m not like the others." She murmured seductively and Anton was trying to resist. Ekaterina was a natural temptress because she was a vampire. Anton was usually to resist them but Ekaterina was a different story. There was just something about her that was almost somewhat irresistible to Anton. She drew him to her. He tried to avoid her eyes to stop her from using compulsion on him.

"I am not going to let you out of the cage." he told her, "no matter what you may..."

"It would be horrible if Master Colvin found out about your ... relationship with a student. Scarlett Petrovensky... Was that her name?" The teacher looked at her, a threatening, icy glare in his eyes. She smiled and knew she had struck a chord.

"You wouldn’t," he murmured darkly, "No-one would believe you. You’re a vampire." She smiled wider,

"Open this cell, look me in the eye and tell me that." Anton looked into her wide, blue, childlike eyes and felt obliged to do whatever she wanted him to. She was a temptress that had him weak in the knees. He opened the cage, not really caring about the fact that he was a werewolf and she was a vampire. He walked into her cell and then she breathed in his ear,

"Anton, give me your keys." Anton snapped out of the haze and finally realised where he was.

"No," he replied curtly, escaping from the cage, just before she had the chance to leap out of the bars. "Not until you tell me the information I need." She sighed,

"This game is getting boring. I love playing with you, Anton, but please can we try something different now?"

"This is no game, Ekaterina, this is serious."

"I’m thirsty; at least give me something to drink."

"How does liquid silver sound to you?" He replied coldly. Ekaterina was seductive and Anton was not going to give in.

"Oh, you’re no fun. I like fun, but you’re just plain mean." She turned away. "I’m not going to give you the information you seek when you are threatening to kill me and keeping me hostage." Anton did not want to have to resort to torture tactics but he would if it was absolutely necessary. He would have to constantly monitor Ekaterina until she finally gave him the information he wanted. It would be a shame if it were a lost cause. She finally sighed, "Okay, I'll tell you what. I will tell you what you need to know if you give me some blood at least. You don’t even have to free me. Just please give me some blood, Anton.

Downstairs, in the basement of the school that nobody knew about - apart from Master Colvin, Anton Trezman, Nikolai Adrik and now, Scarlett Petrovensky - Anton found a freezer and it had three packets of blood that he could feed to her. The basement was an old basement with rusted metal, cobwebs and creaky floorboards. It looked like it hadn’t been used in a century but it had. Anton wondered what kind of business Nikolai and Colvin had down here. Adrik was always here and Colvin’s secretary would always tell Anton that he was down in the basement and would not like to be disturbed. It was not for him to ponder, he decided because he had a vampire to interrogate. Anton did not like what he was doing, but he had to prove his point to Master Colvin. He had to prove that vampires do have weaknesses that can be used against them. He thought vampires were the most immoral creatures he had ever come across in his entire lifetime, even before he became a lycan. Sighing to himself heavily, He found an old shot glass in the dark cupboard as well and he thought he could work the vampire’s need for blood to his advantage by only feeding her a little at a time until she told him everything he wanted to know and not just partial pieces of information that he could not really work with. Smiling to himself, Anton walked up the many staircases thinking grudgingly towards Master Colvin that he should have got an elevator. He hid the blood, but knew there was no point. She would smell it on him.

"Ekaterina," he said, pouring a small portion of blood into the shot glass, "I need this information from you. Do you think you can give it to me, in return for this?" He asked, holding up the glass. She ran towards the bars at lightning speed, but they restricted her from moving anywhere that was outside of the cage. She murmured something in Russian that, in English meant; give it to me right now! But Anton did not listen. "Do I have your word?" She nodded as if he was being childish, but he knew that he was not. He was merely taking precautions. "Where are the vampires located?" He asked, holding the glass in his hand, pretending to examine its contents.

"Give me the blood first," she told him,

"How can I trust you?" He countered,

"The question is how can I trust you?" Anton smiled at her,

"You’ll certainly see. Now, where are the vampires located?" He almost tipped the blood onto the floor and that really set her off.

"On an island in the middle of an ocean, near a beach with a rainforest on the shore," she murmured and then Anton slipped her the glass through the bars and she downed it within a second or two.

"Why did the vampires attack last night?" He asked, pouring her another half of a shot of blood.

"We were bored and had nothing to do, so we thought we’d come and crash your party."

"Lying now, are we? Well, this is not going to be wasted on liars." He drank the blood himself and it was a horrible taste - the taste of rusted metal and salt. It slid down the back of his throat slowly and it was as though every drop was pure acid. I’m never ever doing that again, he thought to himself. Painstakingly, she hissed and said,

"Rayne wanted to speed up April’s death," she told him simply and he slid her some more blood through the bars again and she downed it quickly. Anton wanted to know why but was probably pushing his luck with the desperate vampire already and was running out of blood to feed her. Perhaps if he waited until tomorrow, then he could try again. Or maybe even if he found something that would weaken her and make her want the blood even more than she previously had. That is not a bad plan, he thought to himself, but what would be something I could weaken her with? He had thought of everything; from silver, garlic, sunlight or even a crucifix, but he had not enough access to any of these things. He did, however, have access to a student that could create things with their mind. This alone gave him potential to be the strongest lycanthrope ever. This student allegedly had the power to weaken vampires in his very presence but would that be seen as abusing the student, just to prove a point and what if the student refused? What could he do then? He just had to take his chances. He could not sit back and do nothing, while wanting to prove something to Alexander Colvin. He was conflicted about this and lost deep in thought, when Ekaterina invaded them,

"Why are you not asking me anything? Have I already told you everything you need to know?" Instantly, Anton shook his head and then he continued thinking. Ekaterina was licking her lips, savouring the taste in her mouth. Somehow, he had to find a way to weaken her so that she would give in easily. Was he willing to put his job on the line? Well, I have been teaching here ever since Serenity Mavra had invaded, going after her own flesh and blood. He thought, shuddering, and that was a long time ago. Six years to be precise. The school had been standing ever since Skeldergate had been in its glory days and Anton was a teacher for about six and a half years of that. This would be his seventh in the post as a strategy teacher, although he still looked fresh out of this school. Only few lycans could stop the aging process and look forever young and that was because an old legend was true that nobody had thought possible. The blood of a vampire did make a lycan immortal and this war was started partly due to Valeska’s desire to kill Mavra and partly because Mavra had wanted eternal life and found that the blood of a vampire was the only way to do it. Anton had drunk the blood of a vampire. It was not something he was proud of; in fact, it was the most shameful crime he had ever committed, but it still lurked in his past no matter how much he tried to dispel it. He kept trying to think of options as she spoke, but with each word she said, the idea of using the student became more and more tempting. As much as he hated to abuse his students’ lycanthrope abilities, this was necessary. Is this a lycanthrope ability of his or is it just something that he can do? He suddenly thought. The need was getting greater quickly until he finally gave in to it. He walked downstairs to room one and opened the door,

"Chase, a word?"