I sprung forward with as much force as I could, grabbing hold of the nearest branch for only a fleeting moment before then swinging to the next one ahead of me. Never letting myself forget that soon I would be pursued, I zoomed through the forest with such grace and litheness, like a feather in the wind.

Plenty of logs and boulders scattered the ground, but for now I was relying only on tree branches. Bouncing from branches to boulders and back again would be nice and creative, but would slow my speed. That was the last thing I needed. Before long I could hear my pursuer...and there was no sign yet of the end of the forest.

I put more force behind my swings, but the Pagori behind me was fast and I knew that I couldn’t stay out of his reach for much longer.

“I is a comin’,” he called out in a fake, and somewhat odd, accent. Clearly he considered himself playful and believed this was a game that he was going to win.

Ah, crap! He may just win it. Up ahead there was a wide river. Plenty of rocks stuck out of it, and although I could easily dash across them that would slow me down. I almost felt dispirited until I saw what was beyond the river: the end of the forest. As I noticed the fallen tree in front of the river, an idea entered my head.

“Don’t hurt yourself now,” the Pagori was shouting in a patronising voice. Arsewipe.

As I reached the river, I landed nimbly on the fallen tree and pushed hard on my legs as I leaped into the air...almost there...almost there. Down. Ha. I’d cleared the river.

“Fuck me!” exclaimed the Pagori in surprise.

I’d rather not. Swinging from branches again, I could hear the Pagori stomping across the rocks. Apparently he couldn’t match my leap.

One more swing. Yes! I celebrated in my head as my feet met the ground outside of the forest. Three seconds later, the blond Pagori was beside me. He shook his head at me, his smile filled with surprise and his eyes glowing with respect.

“What’s your name?” The Australian had dropped his playful accent now.

“Sam.”

“Well, Sam, I think I’ve just fallen in love.” His state of disbelief now had him chuckling. “Come on.”

We ran back through the forest at vampire speed, finding Jared waiting at the mouth of it. He seemed amused. Until the Pagori spoke.

“She’s like a wood nymph or something!” He shook his head. “I can’t believe she did it.”

The look on Jared’s face was priceless. “Green, are you saying she outran you?”

He nodded. “You should have seen her leap over the river, she completely cleared it!” He patted me on the back and then waltzed over to his comrades, telling them about the chase.

Whereas Green was dazed yet excited, Jared was dazed but irritated. The other blokes weren’t laughing anymore, but they were still looking at me oddly and whispering. Then I got extremely cheesed off when I heard one of them suggesting to another that I must have given Green a blow job to get him to say I’d outrun him. I stomped hard on his foot and shot him a scowl. He didn’t seem confident enough to scowl back. Were they all arsewipes?

The Pagori who’d earlier assured me that I wouldn’t pass the try-out stared at me curiously. “You sure you’re not a disguised Pagori vampire on crack?”

“Oh shut it, Slaphead.”

He just chuckled.

“For the final stage, we’ll return inside.” Jared’s walk was filled with that much frustration that he was almost marching.

I knew as I entered the building and joined the line in front of Jared that my smugness must be apparent on my face because he was glowering madly at me. I snorted.

“The final stage,” he drawled, “is combat. This is where you get to use your gifts. In the legion, we train to avoid up-close and personal combat as this only tires a vampire and leads to more injuries. Instead we like to rely mostly on our gifts, aiding us to attack from afar. For this stage, the effectiveness of your gift will be just as important as your control of it. There are now only seven of you left. From what I have seen so far, I’m confident that the three spaces I have left in the squad will be filled today. Which means four of you will be going home.”

Jared first matched up one of the two remaining Kejas with a Pagori. “Your aim is to outmatch your opponent, not to kill or cause any harm that can’t be fixed by our self-healing.”

Contrary to mythology, vampires could be killed in lots of ways. A stab to the heart would do the trick purely because we needed it beating just as much as a human. We could also be bled out if our injuries were too extensive. Being starved of blood for more than four weeks was another way to go. In addition, a lot of vampires had deadly gifts that would just as effectively kill us as they would a human.

Both the Keja and the Pagori were good. They stayed clear of each other, as instructed. Their powers were impressive. Although the Keja was a conjurer and was materialising weapons, the Pagori could secrete smoke from his hands, making the room hazy and thus preventing the Keja from finding his target. As such, the Pagori seized a weapon on a bad throw and used it against the conjurer. Combat done and dusted.

Jared then paired up the other Keja with another of the Pagoris. The Keja was exhaling tiny thorns which I guessed were poisonous to some degree. However, as his opponent had the power to deflect or negate anything thrown at him with just the wave of his hand, the thorns simply hit the floor each time. I never got to see what effect exactly the thorns could have as Jared stopped the duel on realising they were both as good as each other.

The last two Pagoris were next – one being the annoying but cute Slaphead. He winked at me before confidently heading to the northern point of the building. His gift was so extraordinary that the whole thing was over in seconds. He had the power to cause temporary sensory paralysis, rendering his opponent blind, deaf, and mute. As such, he was shooting his superhuman breath blindly – literally.

I was next. And I lacked an opponent.

Jared sighed and stared at me through narrowed eyes. I half expected him to say ‘I’m afraid there’s no one to duel with you, you’ll have to run along home.’ But instead, he started removing his jacket.

“I guess I’ll have to be your duelling partner.”

Here’s an excerpt of my contemporary romance story, ‘From Rags’

CHAPTER ONE