Hawtness - Hawtness - Volume 3 - Chapter 10

“Don’t feel so bad,
Jane” Rune comforted me, “I felt Reginal being returned to the demon
realm, I’ll be able to summon him again in a few weeks.”  

I wiped the tears that had formed
on my face. It bothered me a little bit that Rune so casually used Reginal. I
know the creature was on some kind of punishment period, but the way he used him
just irritated me. It felt like the same way Ryan was used by everyone.
Intelligent beings shouldn’t be used like toys. They were people… or hell
bunnies, either way, they should be treated with respect.  

“On the bright side,”
Allan straightened his glasses, “Apparently, demonic bunnies score more
points. It moved you to second place.”  

“Why do they have criteria for demonic bunnies?” Andrew
frowned.  

“It’s a long story,”
Katrina explained, “Back before our clan crossed the Atlantic Ocean we
were settled in a place called Caerbannog. It’s kind of hard to explain.”
 

Andrew shrugged. “Well,
either way, I’m sure Reginal will be glad he was able to help.” 

I gave Andrew a reassuring smile,
but I didn’t really feel any better. Reginal’s death would haunt me for the
rest of my life, or until Reginal was summoned again in two weeks, whichever
came first. Given the circumstances, I couldn’t be so certain.  

“Has there been any progress
towards exonerating Daniel?” I attempted to change the subject. 

Stephan sighed, “The elder
has been making it very difficult. When everyone is busy watching the obstacle
course, I’m hoping to take the distraction to my advantage.” 

“Perhaps then,” Allan
interrupted, “That should be the next topic to discuss. Ryan and I have
been putting something together to shift the event in your favor.” 

“What do you have in
mind?” I asked.  

Allan glanced over at Ryan, who
nodded and pulled a small box out and handed it to me. I opened the box and
looked in. I raised an eyebrow, looking at the two boys.  

“It’s contacts?”  

Allan pushed his glasses back up
on his nose, “Not exactly. They are computers. I got the idea after
observing the architecture around Ryan’s synthetic optic nerve cortex.”
 

Ryan responded to my blank stare,
“He scanned my eyes.”  

“I was able to develop
these. They create a signaling pathway in
your retina, which allows for information to be translated and transferred into
the brain more quickly and efficiently, discarding useless information and
amplifying pertinent data.”  

I turned back to Ryan, he leaned
forward. “They make you see better.”  

“Not just better,’ Allan
scoffed, “Faster. You will be able to perceive visual data faster, and
thus be able to respond to it quicker. It will increase your reaction
time.”  

“That’s all fine,”
Andrew spoke up, “However, what good is being able to react faster if her
body is still slow? No offense.”  

I grimaced, but Andrew was right.
There was no use being able to think faster if I couldn’t move faster.  

“That’s where I come
in,” Victor spoke up, “Allan was able to come up with a couple of
drug delivery tips for my venom. Here is mark II.”  

Victor handed me a familiar vile
and I glanced down at it. It was more of his venom. In some ways, I felt better
now that I had this in my hands. I felt more powerful. Maybe I was a drug
addict just waiting to happen.  

“It sacrifices potency for
longevity.” Victor explained, “That is to say you won’t be as
powerful or as fast as the previous stuff, but it lasts a lot longer. Maybe as
long as ten minutes, although it’s never been tested before.”  

I squeezed the bottle in my hand
before slipping it into my pocket, “Thanks,
guys, I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”  

“We’re not done helping you
yet,” Mr. Xavier spoke up, “That puts you on the same level as the
other werewolves. If we want you to have an edge, we’ll need a few more
tricks.”  

“What tricks?” I asked.
 

“In case you didn’t notice,
I’m a ghost.”  

“Yeah?”  

“Not just a ghost, I’m a
poltergeist.”  

“So…”  

“So, maybe a few of your
obstacles get pushed out the way by the wind. Maybe a few of your competitor’s
trip at a few opportune times. Anything can happen in an obstacle race.”
 

I gave Mr. Xavier a smile,
“You’re going to help me like that, for Daniel’s sake?”  

“I’d do anything to keep you
safe, don’t worry, I’ll be your personal guardian angel,” Xavier chuckled
as Andrew rolled his eyes.  

“That will be perfect, I’m
so happy I could kiss you!” 

Xavier put on a grin like a cat,
“Well, there is nothing stopping you.”  

I frowned turning to him,
“That’s where you’re wrong. There are… like… so many things stopping
me. I could honestly write a book entitled ‘Not going to happen’ on the
subject, but I might be infringing on Samantha’s copyrights. Instead, I’m just
going to head to the starting line.”  

I stood up, heading for the exit
of the tent. The boys in the tent laughed as Mr. Xavier’s expression turned a
bit sour. They might be a bit relaxed, but I was incredibly terrified. I almost
felt like hyperventilating. This was scarier than the time Samantha dragged me
into the back of some strange guys van so we could eat hamburgers with him and
his dog. I don’t know where they even got the meat from. The guy had mentioned
he was a ghost hunter or something. I wondered what he’d make of Mr. Xavier.
 

Most of the werewolves were
already lining up, and I almost felt sheepish being one of the last people at
the line. I took one of the last available spaces to line up and grimaced when I realized it was right
next to the cloaked person that had attacked me earlier. Probably the last
person I’d want to be stuck next to.  

“Getting third place was
just luck,” The voice shot from the hood of the cloaked person, “Give
up and you won’t be hurt.”  

I glared back, “It was
second, and I won’t give up on a friend.”  

“Just a friend,” the
voice in the hood almost whispered.  

I had almost forgotten that I was
still pretending to be Daniel’s mate, “No… a boyfriend.”  

The voice tsk’d in annoyance before turning away, glazing over the obstacle
course in front of us. My eyes followed the cloaked person’s and then bulged at
the sight. The obstacle course was something you might see on some kind of
ridiculous cartoon. Massive spiked bars swung dangerously in front of us. There
were rope swings, water traps, rolling boulders, and pitfalls. Many of the
jumps I knew I couldn’t possibly make as a human.  

I brought
the bottle of vampire venom out, holding it tightly in my hand and hoping it’d
be enough. The final countdown started. Twenty seconds, I snapped open the top
of the bottle. Ten seconds, I brought it up to my lips and drank the contents,
tossing the bottle aside. Five seconds, energy began to flow into me. I felt a
familiar strength. I really could do this.  

The voice of the cloaked person
next to me came crashing home. It wasn’t a man’s voice at all. It was Treena’s
voice.  

“Go!”