Now aware of Stefa's plan, I tried to keep my head down. I didn't want any more attention than I had garnered on my first day. Timmons seemed to regard me suspiciously, but the rest of the hunters had either accepted that I was here, or were better at faking friendliness. Training was more about the human hunters than it was about me. Stefa took the lead on any instruction, having fought more vampires and werewolves than anyone else in the room.
"You humans have every disadvantage," she told them. "I am built to hunt you. I'm faster and stronger. It's vital to fight dirty because that may be all you have. What are my weaknesses?"
"Sunlight," said August, sounding bored.
"And when you find a vampire wandering around in the daytime that might be useful," Stefa shot back. "But it's the middle of the night and you are staring into the trunk of your car. What do you get?"
"A machete," another hunter, Justin, responded.
"And a turtleneck," joked Molly. "So that you get a face full of polyester when you try to bite."
"Protecting your skin is not a bad thing," Stefa agreed. "When vampire fight, we generally use environmental traps. I can hear and smell you, but I won't usually notice an axe attached to a rope ready to swing. We don't see in the dark."
"Can't you jump out of the way?" Justin asked.
"Of course. But in that moment, I'm distracted. If I'm not fast enough, then I just lost an arm. If I am, I may have jumped into another trap or into the arms of a waiting hunter."
"Is that what happened to you?" August asked.
Stefa smiled. I think she enjoyed showing off her white fangs. Her eyes flashed red, but I didn't see that anyone else noticed.
"If you're so curious, look me up," she said. "I don't talk about it."
"But that does lead us to a perfect segue of trap building," Timmons cut in smoothly. "I have some gear in the next room. We're going to learn some practical physics today, kids."
"Kids?" August demanded.
"Physics," groaned Justin.
They followed him out of the training room. I hadn't done anything more than stand off to the side. Grant was still in the room. He had been assigned as our babysitter of sorts, as if we would start tearing down the walls. Stefa cocked her head and smiled at me.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked.
"I don't know what physics are," I said.
She laughed. "It's the science about the rules of the world. Like how cars accelerate, why your face goes left if you get punched from the right, that sort of thing. They're probably learning about potential energy and kinetic energy."
"You are surprisingly well educated," Grant noted.
"It's been a while, but I did go to college," she said. "Back in the '70s, but college nonetheless. They've changed the atom model four times since I've been a vampire. They have no idea what an atom looks like, do they?"
"I wouldn't know," he admitted. "I didn't go to college. I came here." He shrugged. "College is a little more expensive now."
"That's true," she agreed. "So no one is in this room. What are we doing here? I feel like a lecture dummy."
"I need to take Conor up and draw some blood," Grant replied. "As for you, you can follow the others to the trap setting if you like. I don't know if anyone will let you touch the razor wire, but maybe they'll warm up to you?"
YOU ARE READING
Toy Wolf
Werewolf{🐾Book 2🐾 } Captured for a murder he didn't commit, Conor is forced to adjust to a life of experiments, and to his odd cellmate, a bitter vampire named Stefa. As the scientists question what he is, he will be pushed past his breaking point and p...
