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I WOKE UP TO VEDA SHAKING me violently.
"Scarlett, thank god I found you!"
My eyes slowly crept open and for a split second I felt the sheer panic of sleep amnesia. The first few seconds of waking up that rob you of your memories and leave you wondering where you are and what year it is.
"Scarlett. You need to get up now!"
I sat up and rubbed at my eyes. Bright ways of sunshine flooded in from the windows nearly blinding me.
"What time is it?" I mumbled after my mind finally caught back up to reality.
I was stuck in the elusive stage between sleep and consciousness, the sticky one that didn't ever want to let anyone go.
"It's a little after ten." Veda's words were hurried. "You missed the press conference." Crap. My eyes finally opened, and they were wide with fear. The press conference was the nationally televised briefing that the government held to keep New York a watched city. Sure the trials were advertised and aired nationwide, but the only people who were truly invested were the people of New York City. To everyone else it was just a sport, to New York it meant the difference of who got to live and who got to die.
"Shit hit the fan." Veda's eyes got wide.
The fear in her face gave me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"I don't have time to explain here. It's not safe. Vinny's waiting for you in your room, you need to get there. Now." She didn't even wait for my response before she grabbed me by the arm and ripped me to my feet. My mind was reeling as she dragged me down the hall toward my suite. Around us people scattered about, left and right.
It definitely wasn't this busy yesterday. What the hell is going on?
We turned the corner and heard the Governor from Triad three approaching. Veda quickly pulled me into a supply closet and covered my mouth.
"Where the hell is the little bitch?" The Governor seethed. "Do you know how hard it is to lose the only female contender? I told you guys to keep an eye on her. It was your only job!" He screamed.
"Yes sir. We're on it." Two of his security officers said in unison before all three stormed off further down the hall.
"Veda, what is happening?" My eyes were wide.
She pulled me from the closet and we quickly moved toward my suite.
Veda went into the suite first to make sure it was safe. The room was ransacked, clothes were scattered all over the floor. Veda motioned for me to come inside and closed the door tightly behind us, sliding the lock into place.
"Veda what-" My words were cut short by a faint cough coming from the other side of the bed. Veda and I exchanged looks and cautiously peered to the other side.
"Oh my god, Vinny!" My eyes filled with tears.
Vinny lay on the floor in a pool of blood. One of his eyes was swollen completely shut, his lip was busted, and the other one was getting black quick. His leg was bent in an unnatural shape and his breathing was rough. Blood poured out in spirts from a stab wound in his stomach.
Veda covered her mouth to hold in a scream.
"Vinny! No no no no no." Tears poured from her eyes and she lost it. "No, baby. No. This wasn't how this was supposed to go."
I helped Veda pull him to a sitting position propped against the wall, he groaned the whole time.
"Somebody tell me what the hell is going on!"
Vinny pulled his face from between Veda's shaking hands and looked at me.
"It looks like you have more people rooting for you than just me kid." He coughed, winded by the few words.
"The national human rights organization." Veda added. "They took a liking to you. They've already been outraged about the trials for decades, but you were the last straw. It got out that your father was a member of their organization years ago, and your mother's going through cancer. The media ate it up, and the NHA adopted you as the face of their cause. People outside of New York really oppose the trials- like a lot. And now it's all coming to a head, because of you." A shaky, tear filled smile spread across Veda's face. "This might all come to an end, because of you."
"Imagine that. A world without the trials." Vinny coughed. "Terrance would have loved it." He smiled weakly at the thought of his son."
"Colt and Drax spoke up at the conference today. Protestors showed up from all across the country, vampire and human alike and it pissed the governors off. But I've never seen them as mad as when their own sons said they opposed the trials too on live television, because of you."
My heart thudded loudly in my chest. "Why me? Why am I so god damn special in everyone's eyes?"
"Listen kid, we don't have much time." Vinny's eye was half closed now. "They're moving the trials up to today. To this very minute. They want to throw you in that hell hole panicked and unprepared, but you're not. You hear me? You're smart, and your charming, and you're the only woman. Don't let those things go to waste. use them."
I stared at Vinny blankly. Veda still sobbed at his side and I couldn't help but picture my own father in his place, think of the day that I found him slumped over in the alleyway behind the apartment buildings. He had the same look on his face, contentment. I'd always wondered how he could look so at peace with death breathing so closely down his neck, but I saw it in Vinny too.
My father's last words came to mind, they bounced around in my head.
Live your life Scarlett. I'll be rooting for you.
I didn't understand his last words then. I didn't want to live my life, and for the next five years I spent my time walking through life barely wanting to live at all. But now when death was knocking at my door begging to be let in I'd made my choice.
I did want to live. If not for him, or for my mother, for myself. And for Vinny, and Veda, and all the other innocent people whose lives were turned to shit because of the toxic game that the governors played with human souls. The NHRA was right to protest it, the humans were right to protest it, and the vampires were right to protest it.
If we were ever going to be able to live in a world where vampires and humans could live in balance with one another, the trials had to end.
And I was going to be the one to end them.
Vinny noticed the shift in my eyes, even on his death bed and forced another smile. He winced at the pain but I could tell it was worth it. "You got this. We're all rooting for the underdog, okay? Go with the sword. You look badass with a sword." He coughed and used the rest of his strength to point to the outfit we'd chosen for the trials. "The plan's still on. You're just a pretty face until they get close enough for a kill, you hear me?"
I nodded. By then the tears that were dancing on the edge of my eyes were spilling over to my cheeks but I didn't care anymore.
"It was a pleasure training you Scarlett, even for a day. Now go."
Veda handed me my outfit and a cloak to wear over it. I rushed to the bathroom to change and tied the cloak around my neck. Veda ushered me out of the doorway and into the hallway.
"Are you coming with me?" I asked. My heart was racing too fast for me to even realize how panicked I felt, I was a ball of pure adrenaline.
"He's the love of my life. I can't let him die alone." Veda forced a smile.
"Go. Win for us. Take those bastards down." I nodded. I knew she didn't mean the contenders, she meant the governors. Their days were numbered and they knew it.
Veda sent me off with a hug. I pulled the hood of my red velvet cloak over my head and scurried down the hall toward the training room. The hallways were clear now and eerily quiet. There were no contenders rushing around, no security officers, and no governors. Not a single soul but my own and it didn't sit right on my nerves.
I made my way to the training room, slipped inside, and breathed a sigh of relief that it was empty. The weapons were all still there.
I pulled the gorgeous sword from the wall and strapped a sheath to my waist. I holstered a gun to my hip and slid some extra bullets into the pockets sewn inside of my cloak. I turned to leave and Finn teleported through the door and stood directly in front of me.
My eyes widened.
"There you are. You have a hell of a lot of people looking for you. Angry people." He scowled.
"I'm guessing you're one of them." I glared. My hand rested on the handle of the sword.
"I don't know what kind of radical ideas you planted inside of Colt's weak head, and I'm surprised that an addict like Drax was even sober enough for you to influence but you did it somehow. You single handedly found a way to fuck up a lifetime of work and even more possibilities for them and me. For what? Why you? What makes you so special?"
I wondered the same, but I refused to let him see me falter. Vinny wasn't going to die for nothing. I refused to let him die in vain like my father.
"Because I'm the one that's going to bring this whole thing down." I said the words but they didn't feel real coming out of my mouth. I wanted to believe them but there was a part inside of me that couldn't. I was still working on filling the shoes I was forced to put on.
Finn was beyond angry, he was pissed off beyond the point of return. He definitely didn't see whatever Drax and Colt did. He took a step forward and I was seconds away from pulling the sword from my side. I barely knew how to work it, but there wasn't a better time than the present to learn.
The door to the training room swung open and a hoard of security agents flooded in. They had on full swat gear and aimed high powered rifles directly at my head.
Nothing like bringing a sword to a gun fight.
I let go of the handle and held both of my hands up in the air. I wasn't about to get shot point blank before the trials even started. I couldn't win the trials if I wasn't alive.
"We got 'em boss. En route now." One spoke into the radio that was fastened to his shoulder.
"Wait? What the hell do you mean them?" Finn snarled. "I'm not with-" His words were cut off when a tranquilizer dart shot out of one of the rifles. He teleported to the corner of the room and the dart hit the wall. "What the hell!" Finn screamed from across the room.
The agents panicked and they all started firing their tranq guns at once, the sounds of the shots vibrated off the solid walls and assaulted my ear drums. I looked down to see three darts sunken deep into my thigh. I looked up at Finn as he tried to fight the agents in hand to hand combat.
"I'm not with her you idiots!" He yelled.
"Our orders come straight from the governors themselves." One said through his helmet.
The edges of my vision frayed and the last thing I remembered was seeing five agents hold him down while three tranquilized him at the same time.