Mac poked his head extremely cautiously into vampires’ lair like a ground hog testing the wind after a pride of lions had settled in next door. She was lying on the red carpet with a blanket over her, still obviously frozen in the same position from the stress. Grist had thoughtfully propped a pillow under her head. Of course, now it was covered with dust and gravel. “You need any help?”

  “No! I mean, yes. I mean… how did you get in here?” the vampire replied helplessly from the yoga mat on the floor.

  “Safety Ed. I used his master key,” Mac explained, hoping she was too exhausted to ask about the latter.

  “How is he?”

  “He’s been mumbling about some Nipponese girls named ‘Atari’ and ‘Haley’, or maybe it was ‘Akari’ the whole way back. Would you like me to come in and at least wash your face for you? I can get a towel from your bathroom.” Mac reluctantly offered from where he peeked through the door into Natalia’s personal abode. It probably wasn’t wise to tempt fate a second time, but he couldn’t just abandon a co-worker.

  “NO! No. I’m good. Just let me lie here. I’m sure the cramps will let go eventually,” she objected.

  “Just an observation, but… you don’t know when to quit, do you?” Mac asked honestly.

  “Quitting… quitting never ends well,” Natalia answered with more weight than a herd of elephants.

  Mac paused a moment in thought then stupidly replied, “I’m going to check on Miss Sardonyx, then I’m coming back. I hope you don’t mind if I use Safety Ed to prop open the door. He’s pretty far gone. Is that okay?”

  “Yes,” she answered weakly from where she could see the door.

  “Okay. Just sit tight,”

  “Ha… ha.”

  Mac found the determined trollip asleep beneath a blanket on the floor, from where he cracked open the door. Her muscles had completely relaxed and she was snoring softly. He couldn’t help but notice the workbench opposite the door and the large glowing-eyed doll sitting on it beside two smaller dolls with their eyes closed. It did not take an advanced degree to reason it was probably best to stay at the door and just let her sleep.

  Mac hurried back to Natalia’s room and found Safety Ed where he left him, wedging the door open and completely gone to the world. He still politely knocked before coming in. “Hey Natalia, it’s me,” he announced himself politely. The vampire was still frozen on the floor.

  “Is the shock leader okay?” she asked after her boss.

  “Yep,” Mac answered with a smile and glad he had had checked before entering her room. “Looks like her muscles had relaxed as well. She was out cold.”

  “That’s good for her. She fought like cornered cat.” That was high praise coming from a vampire.

  “Yep, I kinda noticed that when I wasn’t dodging Grist. You too. You were really holding back, weren’t you?”

  “Thanks, I think.”

  Mac thought about it a moment and almost didn’t say it, but the decent guy in him overruled the cautious one, “Do you want me to give you a bit of a shoulder massage? It might make it easier to rest, and you won’t have quite the kink in your neck when you wake up.” It wouldn’t hurt to have a vampire owe him one.

  “I… I… that would be…” the vampire struggled to make up her mind. “That would… yeah, sure. Please.”

  Mac stepped inside the room leaving Safety Ed between the door and the frame then sat behind her safely out of eye contact. “Here?” he pressed his thumbs between her shoulder blade and her neck. “Good grief, are you made of stone?”

  “Owww…” the vampire grimaced as Mac worked until the muscle miraculously relaxed with a near audible “twang” and her arm slumped to the floor like it had been lopped off. She even dropped the pugil stick. “Other side, please,” she requested hopefully.

  That side gave out even quicker and the exhausted vampire sighed again in blissful relief. “Can I keep you?” she smiled a frightening toothy grin on the edge of sleep.

  “Did Grist set your alarm like a good friend?” Mac ignored her terrifying request as he emphasized the final word.

  “Yeah, I think he did. Thanks, Mac. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “No problem, Miss Pardova,” Mac replied formally as he dragged Safety Ed into the hall and closed the door. He waited for the tell-tale click of the lock before allowing the sigh of relief to escape his lips.

  Safety Ed’s room wasn’t far, but it took a bit of creativity to get the surprisingly heavy man over his shoulders and into a fireman’s carry.

  Mac dropped him unceremoniously onto the instructor’s own bed and propped a pillow under his head. Safety Ed’s room was as spartan as any hotel room Mac had ever seen. He picked up the phone and dialed channel 3 when he couldn’t find a phone directory in the nightstand.

  “You’ve reached the safety division,” said the cheery, familiar female voice on the other side.

  “Hi, this is Mac, I got a…”

  “Hey there, Mac. You’re from the trainee class, right?”

  “Yep, that’s me, uhm… I’ve got an instructor here who might have a concussion, and I accidentally let him fall asleep. I didn’t see a hospital so…”

  “To which instructor are you referring?” The voice sure sounded like Safety Sam.

  “Oh… it’s Safety Ed,” Mac replied. “He took a shot to the temple and has been mumbling about some girls since he woke up. Well, ‘woke up’ is a strong term. Perhaps, ‘regained partial consciousness’ then dropped away again is more accurate.”

  “That sounds serious. Would you mind turning on the TV in his room and raise the volume. We’ll check on… I mean it will help keep him awake until we can check on him.”

  “He’s already asleep,” Mac remined the operator.

  “We’ll send someone over, right away.”

  “Do I need to prop the door open?”

  “No need. We can get in and he would prefer you lock it. Thanks for getting in touch. We’re always here for you.”

  “Sure thing. Thanks,” Mac answered. Okay, that was the weirdest medical call he had ever had. He checked his outdated watch and was pleased to see he still had time to pick up Zach and grab some dinner together.

  XXXXX

  It was more than a week since returning the frozen Miss Pardova to her room that Mac found himself at the start of the obstacle course beside the perpetually annoying Joe Campbell. The regular class had completed their initial safety instruction and now physical training was a joint thing… much to Mac’s annoyance.

  He was finally starting to get used to the company of the two trolls and, as difficult as it might be to admit, the cute vampire. No not cute, just vampire… but an okay one. The new company, however, left something to be desired. For example, if Joe Campbell were to accidentally step into a temporal scattergram like HeHeHe used near some of the entrances, Mac wouldn’t miss him a solitary second while waiting for him to reappear in the middle of the fabled Ancients War, whatever that was.

  “Too easy,” Joe said loudly to himself as he waited for the whistle to begin the obstacle course.

  “You talking to me?” Mac asked quite honestly.

  “I guess I could be,” the chisel-jawed human replied dismissively. “It’s not like you have a realistic chance against me.”

  “I can take anybody in yoga pants,” Mac couldn’t help himself.

  “They let me move more freely,” Joe answered proudly. “And they make me look like a Thracian god doing so.”

  “You keep telling yourself that,” Mac advised as he shook his head. It was poor form to argue with an idiot, but Joe was so brash and self-absorbed it was near impossible to resist.

  The whistle blew before Joe could respond and they both darted for the series of short walls. Joe vaulted them neatly in a flawless, parkour style leaving Mac behind to ease himself over like a normal person would. That just annoyed Mac, but he pressed on. Joe was already to the top of the thirty-foot rope and crossing the suspended net by the time Mac even reached the rope. Obstacle after obstacle followed, but at least Mac didn’t lose any more ground to the pompous fool after that.

  “Like I said, Champ, too easy,” Joe reiterated while scratching his neck just behind the ear as Mac crossed the finish line with an otherwise respectable time that he might normally be proud of. “You other two-legs can’t keep up.”

  Mac took a deep calming breath, held his tongue, and left the gloating fool behind him. Hopefully they wouldn’t get the same assignment. That thought comforted him only until his logical self had the temerity to remind him that he wasn’t that lucky. Being sane certainly had its drawbacks.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Come for some peace from that foul-smelling idiot?” Natalia asked him as he stopped beside the familiar vampire to regain his breath.

  “He’s the kind of guy I would prefer to leave behind, only I’m afraid he would be the one to do it to me, first,” Mac replied.

  “We can’t all be pleasant like… like…” The vampire fumbled to identify someone before a wide smile crossed her lips as her brain stumbled upon an unlikely truth, “like Grist.”

  “I wonder how a troll like him ended up working for HeHeHe?”

  “Who knows,” Natalia shrugged. “Probably has something to do with that darling little trollip, Janessa. Nice to see she’s getting along with Zach.”

  “Everyone gets along with Zach…” Mac replied, “Well, except for his mother… or that terrible dog.” Hearing the vampire use his son’s name wasn’t as jarring as it had been at first, but it was still a bit uncomfortable. The whole names and power thing still creeped him out considering how it might tie-in to quantum entanglement. Ignorance was probably bliss in this case.

  “Wait. is that allowed?” Mac pointed back to the end of the course where John was assisting his exhausted elven competitor over the last wall. Mac doubted the scruffy looking elf had finished the previous obstacles unaided either judging from the wearied limp the elf made toward the finish line. Mac was even more surprised when the elf politely stopped before the line to wait for the human to catch up.

  “What are you doing just standing there?” John yelled as he crested the wall. “Cross it already, so you have a good time to beat and challenge yourself. Seriously! Get moving! Don’t make me push you.”

  The elf obediently stepped across the line with a guilty expression on his face like he had stolen a wheelchair… from a child.

  John jogged across the line confidently a few moments later and checked his wristwatch (who wears one of those anymore?) to stop the timer. A frown followed, but his face quickly brightened again when he saw the next two challengers top the wall behind him.

  John watched them finish before walking over to Mac and Natalia, “I’m pleased to see you two getting along so well.”

  “We’re stuck together,” Mac admitted.

  “Like the frozen spinach and brussels sprouts left alone in the grocery store freezer,” Natalia clarified further.

  “Better the vampire I know, than the idiot I don’t,” Mac added with a darting look at the still sneering Joe leaning against a guard rail some distance away.

  “Was that a derogatory comment about vampires?” Natalia half-challenged him.

  “Nah, what kind of moron would insult a vampire to her face,” Mac replied flatly even as his heart sped up. “I value my life, no matter how much some of my less-than-stellar choices might suggest otherwise.”

  Natalia gave him a sideways look before shaking her head, “It’s a good thing you’re such a gentleman, or I might have been offended. What less-than-stellar choices?” John added his own inquisitive look to second the vampire’s question.

  “I used to work for The Competition,” Mac explained. “It seemed like a good idea coming out of high school with poor grades and no money. I mean, sure they pay well, but I always felt… expendable. Like I was just another mook to be thrown into the meat grinder when the situation called for it. I remember being stuffed in that closet for two days before someone found me. You’d think that would have woken me up about my employer, but I was obsessed with “that girl”. No offense Natalia, but your spike heels and tight black clothes remind me of her. Well, I married her a few years later, but you can see how that turned out. It’s possible I intrigued her with my dashing personality back then, but I don’t think she ever loved me.”

  “That’s harsh,” Natalia replied. “What finally got you to leave?”

  “That’s a long story for another day,” Mac answered. “But being left for dead by my employer certainly didn’t help.”

  “I hope you won’t find that with HeHeHe,” John gave a half smile. “I’d like to think this company values its employees a bit more. HeHeHe might not be able to prevent death, but we take pains to not leave someone.”

  “Well, the food is certainly better,” Mac quipped, “and the fact that we are taking time to train instead of learning on-the-job is also a step up. Although, with our insane instructor, sometimes that particular line feels…” Mac searched for the word.

  “A bit blurred,” Natalia suggested.

  “The underground cliff face over the bottomless chasm,” Mac offered as an example.

  “And the battle suit training,” Natalia added. “I hurt for days.”

  The hush that followed as they watched a pair of females struggle through the obstacles felt increasingly awkward.

  “How’s your son doing in the future center?” John asked politely to break the silence.

  “Oh, he loves it,” Mac replied with a grin. “He likes his teachers and tells the funniest stories about high-tech gadgets and meeting a young dragon.”

  “Oh, Olivia,” John realized aloud.

  “Yep, just all over the place,” Mac replied, “They must have some amazing holo-tech in there.”

  “HeHeHe certainly does try,” John smiled knowingly.

  “I think that’s what I like about this company,” Mac added thoughtfully. “They actually try.”

  Joe Campbell approached them with his self-assured gate and his shirt off revealing a hairy chest and more muscles than was fair, “The instructor said we have to run it again. Are one of you champs going to pretend to challenge me this time?”

  Natalia just rolled her eyes at him and let the challenge pass.

  “Later, slow pokes,” the annoying human insulted them again.

  “He has amazing potential, but it may take some time to draw it out. I’m sure there’s a high-level reason he made it through the screening process,” John mused aloud.

  “I hope it wasn’t just to antagonize the rest of us,” Mac added with a sigh.

  “Suffering can facilitate growth… under the right conditions,” John replied sagely with a thoughtful look in his eyes as they watched the bully saunter towards the starting point. “It comes down to your attitude, really. It’s probably for the best Vlad didn’t realize his team was bringing someone on board that wears yoga pants so effortlessly.”

  “They do flatter his…” Natalia began.

  “Please don’t finish that,” Mac interrupted with a pained expression on his face. “Even for a blood drinker, I’d like to think you have better taste.”

  XXXXX

  Mac watched in frustration as Joe delivered another crushing, pugil stick blow to the lightweight trollip and sent her head over heels into the gravel. It wasn’t for lack of skill that Tiera found herself in the air… again. Joe, with his impressive muscular physique, was simply able to shrug off the multitude of small blows she landed and power through an otherwise skillful defense.

  “Seriously, that’s the best you can do?” Joe mocked the trollip as she miraculously picked herself back up. He obviously had no idea who she was, and Mac wasn’t about to tell him. Safety Ed had warned him earlier in no uncertain terms to keep that quiet. Joe would have to learn the hard, embarrassing way eventually.

  “I’ll break him in half,” Tiera mumbled to herself as she dusted herself off before preparing to have another go at the pompous fool.

  “Miss Sardonyx,” Safety Ed forestalled her. “I think you should give someone else a chance. It’s not fair to the others if you hog the stronger opponents.”

  The shock leader narrowed her eyes at the instructor wondering what foul thing might have possessed him to suddenly speak so diplomatically. He was probably as frustrated as she was to bring him to such careful words.

  “Hey, Mac,” the grey-eyed instructor nodded to his favorite punching bag, “Do you think you can take Joe down a peg?” He could defeat the troll after all.

  “I reason I might have a chance,” Mac answered before ducking under the railing. Tiera nodded at him with a look of distant murder in her eyes as they passed each other

  Joe spun the pugil stick in his hands before settling himself in front of Mac. “Hey there, Champ. Don’t think I’m going to go easy on you.”

  “Whatever,” Mac replied as he took a deep breath and prepared for the worst. Whatever the human might be able to hit him with, it couldn’t hurt any worse than that one random hit Grist had caught him with last week.

  Joe faked at him a couple times without drawing so much as a flinch. Mac watched the eyes and simply held his ground in front of the brute. Joes rolled his eyes in disrespect at the smaller man but was surprised to see the pad of Mac’s pugil stick in his face when he brought his gaze back down. He still managed to roll backwards with the blow, however.

  “Point to Mac,” Safety Ed called from the edge.

  “Okay, Champ, you have my attention,” Joe was suddenly serious.

  “I kind of thought you owed me that to begin with,” Mac countered.

  “I don’t owe anybody anything, and certainly not you,” Joe replied contemptuously before opening his attack sequence.

  There wasn’t much Mac could do at that point besides swing back. Blocking with any degree of success was generally a waste against someone that much stronger than you. They both traded several mis-aimed blows until Mac got shoved off his feet and sent backwards by a solid gut shot.

  “Point Joe, yay,” Safety Ed called less than enthusiastically.

  Mac stood up slowly and regained his breath while his opponent waited for him to rejoin the fight. Mac advanced slowly this time and opened up with a feint to draw the expected return strike of the larger opponent. He wasn’t disappointed. Joe went for a heavy twisting head shot, but Mac shoved his stick up at and caught Joe’s fingers between the grips. Not exactly the most sportsmanlike move in the book, but he was at a distinct disadvantage.

  Joe didn’t even yelp. Oh, his eyes lit up with a fire, but he didn’t make a sound. He hardly even flinched. The overhand blows that followed were delivered with near surgical precision driving Mac down to his knees before a supernaturally fast sideswipe caught him in the face and dropped him into the gravel.

  Mac considered lashing out from the ground, but that would invite a stomping he’d rather avoid. Probably smarter to stay down. Mac dropped his stick and raised a warding hand, “You got me.”

  “You should stay down,” Joe glared angrily at him.

  Safety Ed thought only momentarily about sending in Grist to try his luck, but the troll had yet to best Mac other than those two lucky shots. He considered Natalia as well, but she would probably hold back, and the trainee’s ego would become uncontainable. “Hey, Joe,” I think that’s the best we could throw at you today. Why don’t you take your ease and let the others try their luck with equal opponents,” the instructor offered graciously.

  “How sad. I was hoping for a challenge,” Joe mocked the entire group rather effortlessly as he turned his back.

  “Grist take him,” the troll stated confidently to Safety Ed from where they stood at the railing.

  “You can’t even defeat Mac yet,” the grey-eyed man suppressed a sigh. “I should be telling you what I just told Joe. But you can’t land any of your swings.”

  “It might be Grist fight wrong way. Try new way?” the troll suggested thoughtfully

  “Do you have any ideas of what you could do differently?” the safety instructor asked completely honestly as he was out of sane ideas.

  “Grist hit on mark.”

  “Of course, but how do you do that?”

  Grist scratched his head and furrowed his already heavy brow in deep thought. He held that position as the next few matches completed and others took their place. Finally, he responded, almost startling the safety instructor who had forgotten he was there, “Grist keep eyes open.”

  “What?” Safety Ed turned back to look at the hulking brute.

  “Grist keep eyes open,” the troll replied with a positive shake of the head, the second syllable rocking the instructor more than the admission.

  “Oh, of course. But how can you make yourself do that?”

  “Grist not know. Need to search best way.”

  “I’ve tried to get you to do that for the past two weeks.”

  “There must be right way,” the troll mused aloud.

  “I sure hope so,” the instructor agreed as another trainee cartwheeled into the gravel with a yelp.

  XXXXX

  Mac stood up at the table having enjoyed yet another wonderful meal and chanced to glance down at Natalia’s plate as she stood up across from him. Her blood vial was poking out from under the white napkin with a cork still in it. “You’re not going to… uh… consume that?” Mac nodded at her plate.

  “I think I’m good for today. It didn’t smell particularly fresh,” Natalia replied with a faint smile.

  “You’re not planning on a late-night snack, are you?” Mac quizzed the vampire cautiously.

  “Of course not, I don’t need…”

  Her comment was interrupted by the loudspeaker. Trainee class, please report to warehouse three. You have ten minutes. Future center personnel will meet you outside and take care of any dependents. A guide will be provided momentarily if needed.”

  “Do you think we’ll get to go to the range again?” Janessa asked Zach.

  “That would be fun. I hope we get to try the flamethrower. I didn’t get a turn last time,” the four-year-old boy explained.

  “It wasn’t that interesting,” Janessa replied, “The grappling hook was more fun.”

  “It made that funny ‘ploop’ sound,” Zac then tried to replicate it serval times.