Tested

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Two nights later, Dad and I sat at a table in a room full of people: humans and supernaturals, injured and unharmed. We were all at the hotel on the orders from Sonia, the spy supernatural working as a police officer, and Bruce, her partner. I hated both of them. I wanted to help, but so many people staying in one building wasn’t going to work.

Most of the occupants kept complaining and asking to go home. Many of them had endured an attack of some kind in the previous nights, but in the light of day, they refused to believe the truth. Sonia and Bruce kept rounding up survivors all the same, forcing them together.

“This is stupid,” I told Bruce as he walked by the table.

He took a seat next to me, his eyes stern and hard. “No, this is survival. We need to stay in groups to fight back if anything comes.”

“How many people here know how to fight a vampire? You might as well leave a blood offering at the door.”

“Kid, we’re doing the best we can.” He shook his head. “Not just vampires out there tonight. They’re scouting, which probably means they’re checking out certain areas and reporting back. The scouts in this area didn’t make it. Not one of them. Maybe that’ll persuade them to back off.”

“Or it makes them send everything they have at us.”

He shrugged. “Chance we have to take.”

“And if people turn on each other in here?” Dad asked. “What then?”

“People want to live,” Bruce said. “That’s the common denominator here. We want to survive, and we’re all in it together.”

“Wanting to survive isn’t the same as wanting to fight,” I said.

Bruce leaned back in the chair, his expression filled with sadness and fear. “I realise that. But this is what we have to work with. I don’t know why you’ve convinced yourself that we’re the enemy, but this is the way to survive. Forming small groups and sticking together will make us harder to find, harder to take. We figure they’re zoning in on the more densely populated areas first. And not just killing. They’re feeding, growing stronger every day. These things took London. London. How is that even possible? We can’t sit in our homes and wait for them to come to us.”

“But you can’t make people believe,” Dad said. “You can’t force them to fight.”

“Make them watch the reports that have been playing on the television,” I said. “Someone’s managing to get something through. If they’re still doing that, then make everyone watch the woman in Ireland. She’s…” I shook my head. “She’ll make them want to fight.”

“Jess, no,” Dad said.

Bruce’s gaze was still locked on mine. “You think it will help?”

“It can’t hurt,” I said. “Maybe it’ll help to see it. For real. To know we’re not the only ones fighting. That we’re not… not alone.” I swallowed hard as his expression softened. I hadn’t realised how alone I felt until I saw someone who might be like me.

“Let’s go get ourselves a television.” He told my dad, “Wait here, Adam. I’ll keep an eye on her.”

I tried not to look too smug as I followed Bruce out of the room and toward the stairs.

“This better work,” he said. “I don’t think I can bear an ‘I told you so’ face from your father.”

“It’ll work,” I said firmly. “Wait a sec. I want to check on somebody.”