The Vampire Games: A Dystopian Paranormal Romance by Stephanie Archer

were friends.
    The minute I was within earshot, she said in a low voice, still smiling and waving at the crowd, “I couldn’t tell you.”
    “Which part?” I snarled back. “The vampire part, or the fighting me part?”
    All she said was, “I wasn’t allowed. I’m so sorry, Bianka.”
    I flinched away from her. It didn’t escape the notice of the crowd, who howled when I moved, delighted that I looked fearful.
    They couldn’t wait to watch Alisyn slaughter me.
    “I said I’m sorry,” she repeated. “Come on. It’s not my fault.”
    I sealed my lips and didn’t speak.
    As soon as we were given a go, we were going to have to try to kill each other. After all of that practice fighting, I would experience the real thing—and it would happen against the one friend I thought I had made in this horrible place.
    Someone who hadn’t even told me she was one of the enemy.
    I’d have been crazy not to contemplate surrender. Alisyn had taught me how to do it for a reason. I could surrender, deprive the vampires of their entertainment, and spare myself death at Alisyn’s hands.
    But as I’d told Phillip, I was too stubborn for that.
    “Competitors, shake hands!” the announcer said.
    Alisyn had explained this during training, too. Shaking hands activated the numbing effects of the gloves.
    I stuck my hand out right away, jaw clenched, and when Alisyn gripped my palm, I felt a slight tingle as the gloves started to buzz.
    “I’m sorry,” Alisyn said again. She didn’t let go of me.
    “I heard you the first time,” I hissed. “What do you want? Forgiveness?”
    At that point, we were supposed to turn our backs to each other and walk ten paces the other way.
    I clenched my jaw again and turned around.
    “One!” the crowd yelled.
    I took my first step.
    “Two!”
    I was dead. My trainer hadn’t told me she was fighting me, and she was a vampire.
    “Three!”
    For a society where being a vampire was prized, vampires sure liked to keep that knowledge close to their chests.
    “Four!”
    Phillip had known about Alisyn, too. And he’d wanted to see me a lot before my fight.
    “Five!”
    Did he think I was going to lose?
    “Six!”
    Did he know I was going to die ?
    “Seven!”
    Had he lied about Marc, too? Was he still actually alive?
    “Eight!”
    Why was I playing this game when it was so loaded against me, anyway?
    “Nine!”
    I clenched my slightly buzzing fists. If I was going to die, I was going to make sure Alisyn felt as much pain as I could dole out.
    “Ten!”
    I took my last step and whirled around. Alisyn was hovering a few feet away, crouched in a position I’d seen her take so often. It would be so much easier if I could tell myself this was just another training session.
    And just like that, the numbers started again. But this time, it was me counting in my head, and it was the roar of the crowd fading away as I registered everything.
    Alisyn was giving me the time to look, for one. She knew what I was doing, and she could have used her vampiric reflexes to evaluate and run in, but she was hanging back, holding a defensive position. Reading me, too?
    No. She knew me like a book at this point.
    I had to do something unexpected. It had to be something Alisyn had never seen me do before.
    I smiled grimly to myself and assumed a defensive position. She had been the teacher. I had rushed her during most of our exercises. Maybe it was time that I learned a little about Alisyn too.
    It had to be boring for the vampires watching. At least the first ten minutes of the fight was only Alisyn and me partially crouched and staring at each other.
    After that, Alisyn shifted to the side, and I shifted to the other side, and we circled for another few minutes. A couple vampires in the stands booed loudly, to the point where I could hear it over the cheering and general talking, but I could wait it out.
    Alisyn broke first. She didn’t rush me, exactly; she walked forward with a confident stride, hands