After changing into gym clothes, the class received their tasks from Ms. Todd. The human students were going to work on endurance training in the gym, while the vampire students were going to train in a different area. Ms. Todd did not disclose what type of training the vampire students were going to undergo and this made the human students curious. Zoe figured that it was probably something that could be sensitive to the humans, maybe they were using the blood they had collected a few days ago or doing something along that vein. Whatever the vampire student’s training was, Zoe was sure she would hear about it from Josh or Lily, her go-to second-hand information source.
While the human students were tasked with stretching before running around the gym at least 5 times or for 20 minutes, whichever was shorter, under Ms. Todd’s supervision, the vampire students were escorted out of the gym. They met up with more vampire teachers and the phlebotomist that drew the humans’ blood a few days ago on their way to a clearing just outside of the mansion. Every young vampire immediately understood the significance of the phlebotomist being there and after hearing that the humans were undergoing endurance training realized they too would be learning how to endure.
The young vampires gathered around James Warner. He was a part of the staff in the mansion and was always present during dangerous situations where the young vampires might become activated. When you saw Mr. Warner, one would think that he was probably capable of subduing all the young vampires in their activated state, due to being tall and covered in muscles from head to toe. Mr. Warner had officially introduced himself as the last line of defense for the human students if any of the vampires here were unable to stop themselves or each other from attacking them. He told them that he was not scared to hurt them if it meant saving the human student’s life. A few of the young vampires were quite shocked to hear this news. And these were the vampires that became activated by more than one human. Hannah and Mikaela, Reina and Theresa’s vampire partners who wanted to explore the dangers of drinking blood from humans were especially peeved by Mr. Warner’s announcement. Josh didn’t worry too much about Mr. Warner for himself seeing as he could control his activation.
When Mr. Warner finished his introduction, he moved on to the young vampires’ task at hand. “Today, using the blood provided by your partners we will be training you to resist its ability to make you activate,” Mr. Warner began to explain. “While exposing you all to this blood, we will be teaching those of you who do not activate how to incapacitate your activated classmates.” All the young vampire students exchanged glances with each other. Josh decided to take this task seriously because Zoe was now important to him. He needed her alive, but it would also be beneficial if she felt that she could rely on him. Unfortunately for Josh all of the vampire students but Evan activate from Zoe’s blood. Thinking about whether he could fight off all the vampire students that might activate and endanger Zoe, Josh realized he was going to have to make sure Evan was taking this seriously, too.
Just like when the blood draw test was performed the young vampires were required to stay behind a line, an imaginary one spread across the shortcut grass. Despite not having been outside since they had arrived, the class was so distracted by what was about to happen that they didn’t care to take in the outdoors. A vial was seemingly chosen at random by the phlebotomist from the canister they were placed in days ago, opened, and presented to the young vampires. Josh and all the other vampires braced for the scent about to hit them. But to their surprise, it wasn’t evoking as much of a response as it did last time. Those that activated were able to deactivate themselves within minutes. It was obvious that the age of the blood after having been removed had affected the innate value that a vampire could draw from it. This particular effect was predicted by the staff and Mr. Warner explained that they would continue to train them to resist both old blood and fresh blood. But since they only had the old blood today and the first step to resisting their activation is acknowledging the feelings and changes that they undergo this was what they were doing today.
Since Josh realized the activations were going to be mediocre today, he tried paying special attention to what the other nine students’ activation tells were. Josh could remember what the final form looked like bloodshot eyes and larger teeth and all, but maybe there was something else that was visible and easy to notice with one glance. The next vial was opened, and Josh began to scan the faces of his classmates. Some of them were tensing in anticipation of their activation, but not activating, while a few others became relaxed minus the smile creeping up on their face. If Josh could have listened to their heart, he would hear it beating very fast, and holding that rate throughout their activation. The relaxed muscles were easy to miss, but the smile in a situation where the vampires were being tasked with controlling themselves must have been an unmistakable tell. Josh kept an eye on his classmates during every single vial and found that not only is the smile a good tell with all the vampires, but there were also a few classmates he needed to be watchful of, the two that smiled before the vials were even opened. For every vial, Hannah and Mikaela smiled in anticipation of letting loose and feeling good and Josh noticed this. He realized that he was going to need to warn Zoe of those two.
After the last vial had been opened and the young vampires had returned from their brief activation Mr. Warner decided that that was enough for today. He had decided he had gotten good intel on these students, minus Josh. But he figured that if Josh didn’t activate from any of the human students in the mansion that would still fall within acceptable safety parameters. If anything, he could train him to incapacitate multiple students at once. For once Mr. Warner was hopeful that this year would end without any humans injured or dead.
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