by Sofia Daniel
The dark-haired one was an asshole who acted too important for humans, and the blond acted like we were too dirty to grace his vampire academy, even though we’d been the ones brought here against our wills.
That psycho bitch, Micalla, could go straight to hell.
I clenched my fists and stared out into the brightening horizon. Orange light spread over the distant hills at an alarmingly slow pace. Why was I even thinking about those bloodsuckers? If life was fair, their evil natures would reflect on their faces, so the world would see them as the monsters they were.
A bolt slid in the doorway, followed by another and then another. My heart jumped into my throat, and I shot upright. “What’s that?”
“Curfew,” muttered a sleepy Annette from the other side of the room. “Anyone found wandering the hallways after hours is fair game. The bolts are for our protection.”
“F-fair game? What does that even mean? Don’t vampires sleep during the day?” I asked.
“With the right amount of protective clothing, some might be able to overcome the glare of the sun. It’s better this way,” said Kat. “Trust me.”
The pain in my throat returned, and my chest tightened, blocking off my airways. I pulled myself out of bed, stood at the window, and ran my hands around its frame. There were no handles or notches or secret latches. They were probably designed that way to stop humans from escaping. My breathing shallowed, and the muscles of my legs twitched with the urge to run and never stop. I circled the beds and hurried to the door.
“Alicia,” Annette said with a sigh. “Don’t do this to yourself.”
I spun around, heart knocking against my ribcage. “What do you expect me to do? Lie there and accept my fate? One of those girls already tried to kill me.”
“She wasn’t serious.” Annette sat up in her bed.
“Are you defending vampires, now?”
“Just saying…” She pulled herself up onto her elbows and dipped her head, hiding her features behind a curtain of long braids. “A vampire wouldn’t murder you in front of witnesses. It would expose themselves and their noble houses to blackmail.”
I pursed my lips. They hadn’t felt the weight of that monster’s hands on their necks. They hadn’t seen those terrible fangs.
Kat flung her covers over her head and huffed. “It’s true.” I had to strain to hear her muffled words. “We don’t know what happened to Barbara and Pam… But the vampires do. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be occupying their beds. Micalla probably did it, but she likes to work behind the scenes.”
My stomach dropped. “So, we’re trapped here?”
“Until we each find a generous benefactor,” she muttered.
“Go to bed. You’ll need all your energy to stay alert during academy hours.”
A picture of myself falling asleep in a room full of vampires made me shudder. Annette swung out of bed and closed the shutters to our window, casting the room in darkness. I changed into one of the white nightgowns left at the foot of my bed and closed my eyes.
A gong sounded, and I bolted upright. Tiny traces of light streamed into the room through the gaps in the shutters onto my white coverlet. “W-what?”
“Dusk.” Kat stepped out of bed and padded over to the bathroom. Annette followed shortly after.
I stretched and yawned. Somehow, I’d slept through the entire day without a single nightmare. I turned to Zarah, who pulled herself up and let out a gasping sob.
Her hands shook. “What are we going to do?”
I gulped. “Learn the escape routes out of here, I guess.”
She dipped her head and gave me a soft nod, but something about her defeated posture told me she would stay so as not to defy the vampires.
I swung my legs out of bed and placed a hand on her shoulder. “The more we learn about this place, the better we’ll be able to escape without getting caught.”
We sat in silence for several minutes. Zarah’s shoulders shook with silent sobs, and my chest ached in sympathy. As the last vestiges of sunlight disappeared below the horizon, the bolts on our door slid open. Annette opened the door and stepped into the hallway. Around the same time, the other doors opened, and eight regular-looking girls stepped out. More human girls occupied the staircases, some as young as fourteen and others looking around twenty-five.
We streamed through the huge doors at the bottom of the tower and walked through darkened hallways illuminated by the kind of picture lights found in art galleries. I didn’t care to look at pictures of vampires in different attire, but my gaze caught a picture of Dracula dressed in a jeweled long-coat and ruffles of someone from the court of Louis XIV.
Up ahead stood ten-foot-high double doors that opened to the dining room. At the far end was a dais with a long, rectangular table. Professor Proust sat in the middle next to Miss Margolyes and the silver-eyed guard from the night before. I swallowed hard and squeezed Zarah’s hand. She cowered into Kat’s shoulder and sobbed.
Two rows of circular tables ran down the room. On the right, human students sat at single-sex tables. I looked around for the delinquent from last night, but he wasn’t among the boys.
“Which boy knows the mind arts?” I asked.
“Vampire students don’t arrive for another twenty minutes after the sun completely sets, but I’ll introduce him when he comes.”
We headed toward a table close to the front.
“What’s stopping us all from getting up as a group and running out of the doors?” I sat and eyed the row of servants standing on the right of the room, each clad in the same black uniforms as the pair outside Professor Proust’s room.
Kat settled into her seat and sneered. “Unless you have a getaway Lamborghini, a twenty-minute head start won’t even get you out of the forest. Better people than you have tried and failed.”
“And have been punished,” muttered Annette.
I raised my head to ask what she meant, but a hush fell across the dining room. Micalla and the twins stood at the doorway. My teeth ground together. So much for the twenty-minute head start. They looked like a trio of runway models about to strut. Micalla and Pigtails’ skirts were hiked up to showcase their long, slender legs, while Ponytail wore hers at regulation length.
Zarah leaned forward and whispered, “C-can you teach us the rules?”
I straightened, needing to know how to survive in a place like this without getting drained or throttled.
Micalla and the twins sashayed to one of the middle tables, presumably for everyone to admire their magnificence. I didn’t care what she did, as long as she kept her murderous hands and fangs away from me.
“The Coven of Bitches rule the girls with an iron fist,” whispered Kat. “Micalla is the daughter of Lady Mantis. She has a seat on the Vampire Parliament.”
I slumped into my seat. “Parliament? How many vampires exist?”
“Enough to fill a small country, but they’re spread all over the world,” replied Annette.
One of the servants from the far right of the room placed a plate in front of me containing blood sausage, pork livers, baked beans, and tomatoes, served on a bed of steamed spinach. Groaning at the sheer volume of the food, I glanced at the door. More vampires streamed into the room.
Once a person had seen a small selection of them, they were so easy to spot. Although each being looked different, there was a certain Stepford quality to their appearances. Perfect hair, perfect teeth, unusually bright eyes, and perfect bodies. Even the smaller vampires who took the appearance of eleven-year-olds possessed that same preternatural perfection.
Kat leaned in and whispered, “If you prove yourself, Micalla won’t ever bother you. And if she assigns you a mate, thank her.”
“Why does she get to play matchmaker?” I muttered.
Another set of servants entered the room, each carrying gold jugs. I swallowed hard. In a school full of vampires, there was only one thing I could imagine sloshing about in those containers. “Is that blood?”
�
��They call it sangria,” said Annette. “It’s a mix of red wine, animal blood, and special nutrients. The Vampire Parliament is working on ways to increase the younger generation’s resistance to sunlight.”
“Does it work?” I whispered.
“Not yet.”
Chatters filled the dining room, and I twisted around to see who had entered. The three boys from yesterday stood at the double doors, looking like a trio of demi-gods. They surveyed the room as though they were the leaders of the academy and not Professor Proust.
“Who are they?” I muttered.
“The Stryx Brothers.” Kat let out a breathy sigh and rested her chin in her hand. “The redhead on the right is Raphael, the blond is Dante, and the dark-haired guy is Nero.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. Sure, they were inhumanly gorgeous, but had she forgotten that they were vampires?
“They’re half-brothers,” added Annette. “The son of Stryx, the ruler of the oldest and most powerful vampire kingdom of the world.”
Raphael, the one with the copper hair, turned to me and grinned, revealing a set of gleaming, white teeth. The sparkle in those dark-green eyes made my stomach flip like a tossed crepe. He must have noticed a change in my posture because he raised his brows and gave me the kind of look that said we would totally hook up, and I was going to love it.
Heat shot through my body, and I clenched my fists. I hadn’t been here a day, and I was already getting distracted by Raphael’s beauty. Giving myself a mental slap upside the head, I asked, “Does Stryx head the Parliament of Vampires, then?”
“Dracula does.” Annette sipped her orange juice. “Stryx has his own separate kingdom that stretches from Italy to Greece. He’s the progenitor of a different line of vampires that date back thousands of years.”
I shook my head. What really mattered was finding a way to escape. Kat and Annette hadn’t been able to share any information during the day, but there had to be someone in this academy who might.
When the chatter died down, the trio sauntered into the room. Dante, the blond, raised his perfect nose in the air as though no one in the room was worth his attention. He caught sight of someone straight ahead at one of the vampire tables, and his full lips turned down with distaste. Raphael with the copper hair inclined his head and smiled at whoever was lucky enough to catch his eye. Nero, the black-haired vampire with the beautiful, bronze skin and fathomless, dark eyes remained stony-faced.
Butterfly wings irritated the lining of my stomach. I turned my gaze to my uneaten breakfast, but my eyes flickered at the passing vampires. Something about them was both fascinating and horrific. My skin tightened, and I dug my fingernails into my palm, trying to snap out of whatever had caused this disturbing compulsion to stare. I’d already attracted the wrong type of attention from Micalla. I didn’t need any trouble from the Stryx Brothers.
The boys walked to an empty table, and Dante placed his hands on the chair back as though to pull it out, but Micalla waved them over. All three of the boys, including Raphael, scowled. A moment later, they walked over to Micalla’s table.
I narrowed my eyes. If they were the sons of an ancient vampire king, why would they have to obey the daughter of someone with a seat on the Vampire Parliament? A little voice in the back of my head, Mom’s most probably when I watched TV instead of doing my homework, told me I needed to focus on what was important. Getting out of this academy of vampires and making sure they never caught up with me again.
As we continued our breakfasts, Annette explained that the Parliament of Vampires only governed those of the Dracula line. Other lines existed and had allied themselves with them over the centuries for protection, but only Stryx and Lilin, two ancient clans, remained independent.
I glanced at Zarah, who hadn’t eaten a scrap of her breakfast. She kept sipping at her orange juice, eyes unfocused, as though she was ready to faint.
Kat leaned into my side, her eyes gleaming. “Which of the Stryx Brothers do you find most attractive?”
“Are you kidding me?” I whispered into her ear. “Behind each beautiful face is certain death. Have you forgotten that they’re vampires? We should be planning our escape, not fawning over blood drinkers!”
Silence fell across the tables on the left, and each vampire turned to stare at us. All the blood drained from my face, and my heart pumped everything it could into my legs. They’d been eavesdropping with their enhanced hearing.
Dante was the first to stand. His blonde hair curled around his head like a laurel wreath, and the chandelier light made his strands shine like spun gold. Cold aquamarine eyes bored into me with the intensity of diamonds, and he stalked across the room with the grace of a lion on the hunt.
The corner of his beautiful lips curled with distaste. “For someone given an opportunity to elevate herself above the average human, I would say your ingratitude is staggering.”
I clenched my teeth. Nothing I said would salvage the situation. I’d meant every single word.
Nero and Raphael stood from their seats and strolled over. Raphael, with an amused smirk, but Nero looked bored, as though he and his half-brothers had carried out this scenario with so many newly arrived frumosi, it was getting old.
Dante bared his teeth. “Stand, when I’m addressing you.”
Professor Proust stood from his position at the head table. “Mr. Striga, we don’t condone—”
Dante held out a hand. “Hold your peace, Professor. We’re just talking.”
The older vampire folded his arms across his chest and scowled.
Kat and Annette each lowered their gazes to their plates, acting as though they didn’t know me. I couldn’t blame them, but they could have at least warned me that the vampires would be scanning our conversation for words of disrespect.
“Stand,” said Dante between clenched teeth. “Unless you wish us to pull you up by the scruff of your neck.”
My throat still throbbed from being crushed by Micalla, and I placed my hands on my table and pushed myself up. Fear roiled in my belly, spreading its cold tendrils to my legs, which trembled so much, I could barely stand. These three boys could do anything to me, and there probably wasn’t a thing Professor Proust would do to intervene.
“You need to show some deference,” said Dante.
At his words, every muscle in my body went rigid, and I clenched my teeth to stop them from chattering.
Dante’s eyes narrowed, but his pupils remained round. “Because, as you quite rightly state, we are certain death. Superior beings who have provided you with the protection you need from an enemy that can neither be reasoned with nor evaded.”
I gulped. This was the first I had heard of any other enemy. The Coven of Bitches also stood but didn’t walk over. Micalla’s words from last night echoed in my ear. Not to sniff near what was hers. I gathered from the way she had beckoned the boys over to her table, she considered at least one of them her property.
Dante arched his brows and said in a haughty tone, “Kneel and kiss my feet.”
I folded my arms across my chest only to muffle the sound of my thrashing heart.
Silence stretched out, and the butterflies in my stomach disappeared, leaving an empty pit. If I didn’t kiss Dante’s feet, he’d probably force me down to the ground with his vampire strength and stomp on the back of my head until my lips touched the toe of his leather boot.
My throat convulsed. If I bent the knee and did what he said, it would mean giving in to a bully and opening the door to even more humiliation. I’d also lose all respect for myself. I stared ahead, avoiding his cruel, assessing gaze.
Nero folded his arms and drummed his fingers on biceps that protruded through his black wool blazer. His gaze darted toward a golden jug of sangria held by a passing servant. With an impatient huff, he turned to Zarah. “You do it.”
My stomach dropped, and a shocked breath pushed its way out of my lungs. “Zarah, don’t—”
Zarah scrambled out of her seat and landed on all fours
. I flinched toward her and tried to kneel in her place, but strong hands held me back by the arms in the gentlest of grips. The warm, masculine scent of sandalwood, cedar, and cypress filled my nostrils, causing my muscles to relax.
Raphael murmured into my ear, “Don’t interfere. You’re in enough trouble as it is.”
I swallowed back a sob. If I showed them how much their actions had bothered me, they would bully Zarah until I kissed Dante’s foot.
Zarah crawled on her hands and knees to Dante and pressed her lips on the toe of his leather boot. Rage burned through my veins. Zarah hadn’t done a damned thing to offend them, yet they had gone so far as to punish her to get at me. Nero tapped his foot, and she crawled to him and kissed his loafer.
When she turned to Raphael, he stepped back and smiled. “I appreciate the gesture, but it isn’t necessary.”
“You may rise.” Dante’s cruel lips twisted into a satisfied smirk, and his pale blue eyes glinted with challenge.
My nostrils flared. Who the hell did he think he was? Some kind of emperor? I ground my teeth and held my tongue. If I upset his fragile, vampire ego, there would be no telling what he would make Zarah kiss next.
Kat helped Zarah into her seat, and she buried her head in her hands and sobbed.
The three boys sauntered back to the table they shared with the Coven of Bitches as though they hadn’t just intimidated a grieving girl into the worst kind of public humiliation. I glared at their backs, wishing I could develop magical powers and strike them down.
Micalla’s lips thinned, and she turned her venomous blue gaze in my direction. She would probably have hated me just as much if I’d kissed Dante’s foot. I may as well be damned for maintaining my self-respect. I returned to my seat, cut a slice of blood sausage, and popped it into my mouth.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Kat hissed. “You can’t go around offending the Stryx Brothers.”
Cutting one of my slices of liver into bite-sized pieces, I slowed my breathing in an attempt to stay calm. Four counts in, eight counts out, the way Mom taught me. “And I wish you hadn’t asked that question within earshot of them.”