Yes, it took two entire months, but the wound is all closed up. Somehow, whatever the werewolves used on their fangs and claws prevented the wounded vampires from being able to make use of our healing abilities. We had to heal as if we were ordinary humans, and it took two months for new tissue to granulate and form.
The future. That’s all that concerns me, and I so desperately want to know how everything will turn out in the end. Will Julian and I be able to get married? And then what? Return for our third year? How can we get the animosity to end? Because it won't stop once we graduate. The other students are growing to continue to sow the seeds of hatred and contempt. How can there be peace?
And if we do manage to figure out a way to get the two sides to stop killing each other, what can we do for the rest of our lives? Where will we live?
Virginia, the state our academies reside, is a perfectly lovely state. Or maybe we should move out west more. Julian does love mountains. Then again, moving so far away from his family might not be a good idea.
And even more important than the location of our future—our jobs. What will Julian want to do?
What do I want to do?
I know it’s ridiculous, utterly ridiculous, but I can’t figure out what I want to do in the future. More than that, I find my classes so fascinating this year that I’m doing very well in my studies. A bit too well. I’m not going to have to take any summer courses at this point.
I’ll just have to fail a few tests here and there. Not that I want to be known as a poor student, but I will do as I must.
And considering I have been doing so well in my classes, I have no need for a tutor, a fact that doesn’t dissuade Constantine, not even a little bit. I’ve been avoiding him every chance I get. Father, too, for that matter, although I wouldn’t be surprised if Father makes an appearance here at the academy soon. It’s almost Christmastime, and while that isn’t his favorite time of year, Father does like to give presents as a way to show that he cares, but it’s so very materialistic that it falls short every time.
I don’t need jewelry or dresses or anything like that. What I need is a father who cares about me enough to let me go and live my own life.
But that will never happen.
My fingers trace along the terrible scar on my arm. If Father were to see this, would he go on the warpath and hunt down and kill every werewolf at Moonstone Academy? I don’t want to find out, but if he were to kill werewolves, it would be because he wanted to and not because of wanting to seek revenge. No, nothing as emotional as revenge would ever motivate him.
“Here you go.”
I turn to the door of my bedroom in time to watch Tyra toss me something. Only because I’m a vampire can I catch it.
“What is this?” I ask.
“What does it look like?” she asks as she crosses over to my bed and sits on the edge. “Go ahead. Open it.”
With a shrug, I unwrap the gift and find a pair of black lace gloves.
“They’re fashionable, will go with anything including our uniform, and, added bonus, they’ll hide your scar.” She grins sheepishly. “Do you like, or did I overstep? Because there’s nothing wrong with the scar, but—”
“They’re wonderful. Thank you.” I walk over to her and give her a hug. “I didn’t get you anything yet, but I will.”
“Don’t worry. You have time.” She winks and leans back on my bed, her arms stretched out behind her to prop her up.
“So… I’ve been thinking,” I start.
“Uh oh.” Tyra shakes her head. “Whenever you start out saying that, it’s never a good thing.”
“Haha. Very funny.” I scowl. “You wouldn’t happen to be interested in Constantine, are you?”
“Are you serious? He wants no one but you.”
“For some dubious reason. He doesn’t even know me.”
“And you think he’ll want to get to know me? Please.” Tyra just shakes her head. “I don’t think so. Besides, you told me before that he gives you the creeps. I do not want your creepy sloppy seconds.”
“He’s not my anything,” I protest, “and he never will be.”
“You just want to use me to try to get him off your back. That is just plain wrong.”
I hang my head. “I’m sorry. Forget I said anything.”
But when you tell Tyra to do something, she tends to do the opposite. For the next two days, she can't stop talking about how I want to pawn Constantine onto her. Slowly, her talk is changing, though.
“He never stood a chance,” she says at breakfast. “You were already claimed by that point.”
“I wasn’t claimed,” I protest.
At lunch, she says, “You always said he doesn’t know you, but you also don’t know him. You never bothered to.”
“You can if you want.”
By the time dinner rolls around, Tyra keeps looking around.
“Are you looking for who I think you’re looking for?” I tease.
“Hush. There he is.”
Tyra winks at me, and then, she's zipped across the field over to stand beside him. They talk, and I discreetly observe them. Tyra is brushing back her golden-brown hair, smiling and laughing. She's really working her charm.
But Constantine glances over his shoulder in my direction. I duck my head and squirm. Why is he so obsessed with me? What does he want from me? Besides wanting to be with me, that is.
I stand and leave, heading to my room. My tablet rests on my nightstand, and I try to look up Constantine. His father is Sanog, a rather old demon, one who doesn’t seem to be on Earth much at all, spending years at a time, decades even, in Hell.
Does Sanog have a connection to my father? Maybe they made some shady, under-the-table type deal that involved their children.
It’s not easy to find much of anything else about Sanog, though. It’s strange, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s had supes.com wiped clean of most mentions of him. Ever since Constantine was born almost eighteen years ago, Sanog has been on Earth instead of Hell. I think that’s a rather long stretch for him. What is he planning? Is he planning anything? Maybe there’s nothing here, and I’m creating a massive conspiracy when there isn’t any.
I’m still fruitlessly searching when someone knocks on my door.
“Come in, Tyra,” I call without looking over.
My door opens, and my cousin walks in. I glance over to see her frown.
“I’m sorry,” I mumble.
“Face it, Romelia. I don’t stand a chance. No girl does. He has his eyes set on you and no one else.”
“Why?” I groan and rub my forehead.
“What are you working on? Something for school?” she asks as she crosses over to sit beside me on my bed. “I must say that I’m proud of you. You’re doing so much better this year, finding a balance between… Who is that?”
“Sanog.”
“And why are you looking him up?” She raises her eyebrows. “You aren’t thinking about trying to get a demon to help you, are you?”
“No.” I laugh. “He’s Constantine’s father.”
“You want to see if there’s a connection between him and your father.”
“Yes.”
“Have you found anything.”
I sigh. “No.”
“I don’t think Constantine will tell me anything, but I’m willing to try. He’s not the one for me, by the way.”
“Constantine?”
“He’s too… fixated.”
“It’s creepy, right? Not that I wanted him to shift his fixation to you.”
“No, I get it. No one wants to be the focus of all of that.” Tyra squeezes my shoulder. “I don’t know if he’ll tell me anything. Most likely, he won’t. You might be the only one who can get him to ‘fess up.”
I groan, drop my tablet onto my lap, and rub my hands down my face. “I don’t want to have to deal with him. Avoiding him isn’t helping, and that’s nearly impossible because we’re in all of the same classes.”
&
nbsp; “Hmm. Did you notice if he was around that night?”
The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. “I don’t remember.”
“I don’t remember either, and I was there from when the werewolves first arrived.”
Something in her tone makes me reach over and give her a one-armed hug. “You don’t really talk about it.”
“I don’t want to,” she mumbles. “It was horrible. Dancing one minute, screaming the next… For all of my bluster, when push came to shove, I didn’t stand my ground and fight for more than a few minutes before I caved. I ran. I saved my own neck, and I let so many others do the fighting instead. So many others got hurt… You got hurt, and you… You ran off. What did you see? What did you do? I mean… did you fight the one who hurt you?”
“Tyra, you never told me any of this.” I rub her back.
Tyra shakes her head and stares into the distance. “It wasn’t my finest moment. Most nights, I dream about it, dream about my staying, my fighting… my dying. Even if I died, I should’ve stayed. I should’ve fought, or if not fought, then I should’ve tried to break it up or to help the wounded vampires. Instead, I chose my own life. No wonder I can’t get a guy to look at me. Not that I need one or anything, but… I’ve been feeling so alone, and I know we’ve been talking, and I have other friends, but even when I’m with you, I still feel alone.” She takes a shaky breath.
“Well, let me give you some insight. I tried to break up the fighting. That didn’t work. That’s why I was hurt. I tried to help save vampires, but… it touched me, Tyra, like it touched you. It’s a darkness, the hatred between vampires and werewolves. It’s a disease, and it’s going to come to a head. The small fights here and there, they’re nothing, but I’m sure there’s going to be more. More fighting, more deaths… I don’t know how it can end.”
“I know how it’ll end. With a lot more bloodshed,” Tyra says grimly.
“Not yours, hmm?” I lift her chin. “You don’t have to feel ashamed that you ran.”
She grabs my wrist and lowers my hand. “I do feel ashamed. I feel unworthy. As much as I can accept that maybe your boy isn’t that bad, that he’s not like others of his kind…” Tyra shakes her head. “They came to our campus with poison. They wanted to kill us, and they did. We’re lucky more didn’t succumb, but what’s really crazy is that they poisoned their own teeth. They poisoned themselves. That’s how far they were willing to go to hurt and kill us. When they come back—because you know they’ll come back—we have to be ready.”
“Tyra, please. Let’s not worry about the werewolves right now. Let’s focus on getting Constantine off my back.”
She eyes me and purses her lips.
“And thank you for telling me about all of this. I’m so sorry you’ve felt like this for months and didn’t tell me. You can talk to me about anything,” I say earnestly.
“You have too much heart for a vampire,” she grumbles. “You would think your father’s an angel, not a demon.”
I smile and bat my eyes. “Does that mean you’ll be my vampire detective partner.”
“Fine.” Tyra wags a finger at me. “But don’t think I don’t realize what this?”
I blink innocently. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you do.”
We giggle, the sound a bit forced, but Tyra definitely relaxes some. Yes, we both know it’s a distraction, but sometimes, distractions can be a good thing. For Tyra’s sake, I hope it’s a large enough distraction that she can finally settle her mind and get a good night’s sleep for once.
Chapter 16
Julian
This second year at Moonstone Academy has had more downs than ups, but tonight is the night of the Grand Hunt. It’s always held on the spring equinox. I’ve held my ground, and I’m not playing any part in it. No, I have other plans.
Every month, there’s been at least two skirmishes between the werewolves and the vampires, but the alphas haven't stopped us. In fact, Mercy told me that her alpha, her father, called a meeting, and he didn't exactly discourage things. That makes me all the more nervous, but the Grand Hunt shouldn't cause any issues with the vampires. At least, I don't think it will. I honestly don't know or care to know the rules. Mercy and Bermon and the others can enjoy, but I have other plans.
Tonight will be the first night in months and months that I will see Romelia again.
The moon shines down on me as I make my way to Silver Ironwoods. The trees glisten and glitter as the moonbeams' silver light highlights the silver barks of the towering trees.
There, ahead of me, a form emerges from the shadows. Romelia.
My heart skips a beat at the sight of her. Our hands touch, and we’re off, her yanking me along, whisking me away. My legs can’t keep up with her vampiric speed, but she’s strong enough to drag me.
Once we’re far enough away that we should be safe from any and all suspicious characters, she slows. We’re near the cave and the waterfall, but I shake my head and tug on her hand.
“This way.”
“Are you sure?” she asks. “I thought…”
“Tonight, we’re going somewhere else.”
“Lead the way.”
It’s a bit of a hike, but about an hour later, we arrive at the base of a tall mountain. This particular mountain houses a dragon who, more times than not, is sleeping. Because of said dragon, most other beings and creatures avoid the place.
“Why are we here?” she murmurs, lifting onto her toes.
“Wait a moment. Shift over… here.” I move her into position.
“But—”
“Shh. Watch.”
We’ve arrived just in time for the moon to rise up over the pinnacle, casting a brilliant hue of a kaleidoscope of colors atop the snow-tipped mountaintop. Romelia lets out a gasp, but the spectacle is only beginning. As the moon climbs higher, the rainbow's varied colors fade away, replaced by only two—red and black, both with a silvery outline.
“Oh, Julian!”
“Have you ever seen anything like it before?”
“No, never.”
I walk around from behind her and watch, enjoying the wonder and awe shining in her red eyes. She’s utterly captivated by the sight, just as I am of the sight of her.
After a moment, she glances at me and then again before smiling and turning to me. “You aren’t watching.”
“I’m fine. You’re fine. You can watch.”
“Hmm. Is this the only reason why we’re here?”
“Well, there is a dragon around these parts.”
“Oh, yes?” She giggles. “Is he sleeping by any chance?”
I tap her nose playfully. “Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”
“No, I most assuredly am not.” Her eyes are twinkling. “Let’s go to the mines.”
“The mines?”
“And then come back!”
“What on earth are you planning?”
“Will the dwarves be there, do you think?”
“Not at this time.”
“Come on. Which way do we go?” She tugs on my hand.
“Just what are you thinking?” I ask with a laugh.
“Well, it’s just that so many people do try to steal from dragon’s hoards. Why? It’s not right to steal.”
“Are you suggesting that we sneak into the mine, finding a gemstone or what have you, and then sneak to the dragon’s hoard to add to it?”
Romelia nods, her grin broad and striking. “What do you think?”
“I think you’re adorable, and I don’t have the heart to tell you no.”
She squeals.
“Hush!” I warn in a mockingly stern tone. “If you aren’t quiet, we’re going to get caught. The dragon will find us and barbeque us.”
“That would make for a terrible date.”
“It really would,” I agree, “and we haven’t had a terrible date yet.”
“No, we really haven’t,” she murmurs. “When we�
��re together, everything is perfect, but the moment we’re apart…”
“Let’s not focus on the negative.” I hold her hand and run my thumb over the black lace gloves she’s wearing. “I do like these.”
“Thank you. Tyra gave them to me.”
“She has good tastes.”
“I wear them every day.”
My eyes widen as I realize the intent behind her reasoning for wearing them every day.
She gives me a tight smile. “The mines?”
“Of course. Right this way, my lady.” I sweep into a deep bow, and we’re off.
We're taking up a lot of time traveling, but just being together is all I need. I'm so very happy to be beside her once more, to hold her hand, to hug her, kiss her. The world seems full of promise and light when she's around. She truly is my moon, shining so brightly she banishes away my despair, fears, and worries. With her, I can truly be free. With her, I am myself, but without her, I face so much uncertainty that I feel trapped, smothered, confined.
The mines have been abandoned for the night, but we find some hard hats that I insist we wear as well as a sturdy set of pickaxes. I head down the tunnels to the spot where I worked over break, and we get to work. As I suspected, Romelia is a quick learner, and while I unearth a tiny crystal, she finds a rough but opulent fire opal.
“Here we go!” she says triumphantly.
“Are you sure you don’t want to keep that for yourself?”
“What? Goodness, no!” She shakes her head. “Come on. Let’s go before we get caught.”
We’re just removing our hard hats when she leans close.
“Maybe we shouldn’t do this. The dwarves…”
“I’ll make an arrangement with them,” I promise. “Your conscience will be clear.”
She narrows her eyes. “Why do you look like you’re trying not to laugh?”
“Because. A vampire with a conscience. Who would’ve thought?”
Romelia slaps me and marches away, head held high, hips swaying. She’s beautiful, so very sassy, and I chase after her. With a laugh, we race back toward the mountain.
By now, the moon has already begun to descend some. The mountain isn’t as majestic as earlier, but that doesn’t seem to dull Romelia’s excitement any.
Blood Haven: Year Two: A Mayhem of Magic World Story Page 10