Hybrid (Book 1, The Hand of God Series)

Chapter 4: Agony

Drake stared expressionlessly at the dark-haired woman in front of him.

"Oh, I guess I should say nice to meet you." he said attempting a smile, but Sofia just waved him off. He dropped it almost immediately.

"Oh, don't worry about that." she said. Turning back to Damien she spoke harshly, "And you." he stood fully erect as she addressed him.

"Y-Yes ma'am." he gulped and answered shakily, his eyes nervously darting everywhere trying to not meet her eyes. Sofia glared down at him and he cowered.

"You should know better than to lose your temper in battle. I taught you better than that, little brother." she reprimanded.

"I-I'm sorry, sister." he said sincerely, his shoulders sagging and his eyes not managing to hide his embarrassment.

"It's not me you should be apologising to," she paused and pointed at Drake, "It's him."

Damien didn't even hesitate to bow.

"I apologise for my uncouth behaviour and I humbly ask for your forgiveness." Drake shrugged at his apology, just as impassive as ever.

"Yeah, sure," he accepted the apology and asked nonchalantly, "Just don't do that again, okay?"

Damien straightened up abruptly and nodded rapidly. Selena silently watched everything unfold from the side and shook her head at Damien's actions. She opened her mouth to speak but then a blood-curdling scream echoed throughout the arena.

Selena turned toward the direction and saw something that made her blood run cold. A woman lay at a man's feet, her eyes lifeless and her face frozen in a scream of horror. The man's mouth was dripping blood, his eyes as red as the blood coating his lips.

A vampire.

Drake wasn't sure what to do, but there was a small nagging feeling at the back of his mind, and he didn't know why.

".... ake.... rake.... Drake!" he was snapped out of his thoughts by Selena urgently shaking him and shouting.

"This is no time to be freezing up! You need to get out of here." she said. Drake was unresponsive for a few seconds before shaking his head.

He remained silent and started walking towards the vampire. He heard Selena shouting for him to stop but he didn't slow. The vampire looked over to him still grinning before he sniffed the air and his grin dropped as he snarled. Drake drew his sword from its sheath in return. The arena was mostly empty. Only Sophia, and the other three were still inside. Meanwhile, the vampire was completely lost in his blood-lust and his only thought was to kill his enemy.

Drake turned his attention back to the vampire right in front of him and lunged with a downward slash causing the vampire to leap up to avoid it as he predicted. Drake muttered something and the vampire was instantly pulled back to the ground, stunned by the impact with the ground.

Drake waited until the advantage of his enemy's dazed state faded before he swung his sword and decapitated the vampire. Drake sheathed his sword and looked down at the fading headless corpse. He sighed, it was lucky that his sword was silver. He turned his attention to the others in the arena, who wore shocked expressions. Drake tried to force a smile.

"Well, wasn't–" he began, but was cut off by Andrew.

"That was AMAZING!!" Andrew shouted excitedly, "You just killed a vampire." he said in disbelief while Selena stood awestruck.

Sofia gave him a nod of respect, but Damien had a dark look on his face. He glared at Drake and schemed. Who was he to deserve such respect? He could have handled that vampire easily on his own.