Origins (A Demonkin Novel) by Sean Hayden Page B

Staff Sergeant disappeared around a corner. I heard a large metal door swing open and then close again with a large bang, and then the Gunnery Sergeant came back into the room with a box in his hands.
    He placed the box on the counter with the rest of my gear. He pulled a sheet of paper off the top of his desk area and set it and a pen in front of me. He told me to sign for the weapon and placed the sheet of paper in a file folder on his desk. He moved to another storage closet on the back room of the hall and opened it. He pulled out a pair of safety glasses with yellow lenses still in their blister pack, and a water bottle with belt and clip. Again the items made their way to my growing pile. I grabbed the water bottle and handed it back to him. He placed the item back on my pile and turned away before I could hand it back to him again.
    He made his way back to the desk and grabbed a different form. He placed it on the counter and began checking boxes next to items. When he finished he turned the sheet around and told me to sign this one as well. I complied and thought about trying to give him back the water bottle I would never use, but just gave up on it. I would just give it a home in my closet.
    "You're done, miss, you have it all," he said as he pulled a plastic bag from underneath the counter for me to put the various items in. "Thanks for shopping at FBI mart. Flip the closed sign on your way out would you, Walker?"
    "Come on, Ashlyn. Let's get all this stuff back to your room. Is there anything else you need? We could stop by the campus store," Walker said to me.
    "Actually I do need a few things. Let me take this to my room first and let me grab some cash. Wait right here." I walked around the corner and vamped it up. I shot back to the dorm in a few seconds and then had the door open and the items stowed away in a few more. I wanted to blend in as much as possible so I stripped my clothes and threw on the tee and sweatpants combo and changed my shoes and socks. I grabbed a handful of twenty dollar bills and stuffed them in a pocket with my room key and stood in front of Walker in less than a minute.
    "Ready?" I know I had acted a little childish showing off for the hunky agent, but I'm still a teenage girl. He gave me a double take and looked around to see if anybody else saw my little stunt. Satisfied no one else was around, he just shook his head at me.
    "Ashlyn, your class is going to be mostly made up of supes, and it's fine for you to be more than human during training like on the obstacle course, or hand to hand combat, but not around the campus. We consider what you did showboating for the norms and they don't like seeing it on a daily basis, okay?"
    I felt my heart sink about six inches lower in my chest. I wanted to impress Walker not end up the recipient of a lecture. I knew he wasn't normal; I could smell it on him. "Okay. What kind of supe are you anyway?" I could tell he wasn't expecting it either.
    "I'm a werewolf. How did you know?"
    "I can smell it on you. It's what makes me different from other vampires. I can't feed off of "normal" humans. I can only drink from supes. If it's someone I can feed from, I catch a "scent" from them." I watched his face for any signs of revulsion, but I found only sympathy.
    "You don't like being a vampire do you? I can hear it in your voice. How long have you been one? How long did it take you to get use to it?"
    "I don't know. I've always been a vampire. I have never been human," I replied. Telling people I was a vampire kept getting easier every time I did it. I saw a confused look from Agent Walker, so during our walk to the campus store I told him my story. I really needed to get a digital tape recorder and record my story. Then I could just hit "play" and let it run in the background. I could even add some sad music and kind of make it like my "theme" song. I could play it whenever I walked into a room!
    We had reached the store long before I finished with my