by Sofia Daniel
One day, on my way to Refined Communication class, someone tripped me, and I sprawled on my front. A group of vampires crowded me, their laughter ringing in my ears. My cheeks burned with humiliation, and I glared up at Captain Shanks, who stared down at me with impassive eyes.
Micalla crouched in front of me. With a smirk, she offered her hand. Pigtails giggled behind her and squeezed Zarah close, who stared down at the floor, not wanting to look at me.
I glowered up at the silver-haired bitch, ignoring her treacherous hand. She would probably throw me across the hallway or something just as violent. Mirth danced in her lapis lazuli eyes, their gold flecks reflecting in the light like she’d stolen them from a cat. I pulled myself to my feet and stood with my back straight, fists clenched, and with as much dignity as I could muster, I walked to my class.
Captain Shanks shadowed me through the hallway, not intervening when someone lifted my skirt, not stopping another vampire from slapping me so hard across the face, I fell into the wall, and not stopping someone else from spitting sangria on my shirt.
I arrived at my classroom a sodden mess and pulled open the door. Dozens of cat-sized vampire bats flew into my face. Their wings sliced through the air like whips, their warm, furry bodies collided with mine, and the mouths on their twisted, rat-like faces opened, revealing two sets of horrific fangs.
A scream tore from my lips. Dropping my satchel to the ground, I thrashed about, trying to knock the hideous creatures away.
One of them screeched so loud, my eardrum burst. Pain exploded across one side of my head, and I clapped my hand over my ear, wincing at the fluid seeping through my fingers.
“Commander Shanks,” I shrieked. “S-stop them!”
The vampire leaned against the wall and folded his arms. All around me vampires stood, watching their furry minions swoop down and attack.
Paws settled on my shoulder, and sharp fangs pierced my neck, making me flinch and cry out.
“Get off me!” I batted the creature away.
Mocking laughter rang through the hallways as the bats continued their attack. No matter how much I thrashed and punched at the air, they returned until my limbs grew tired and slowed. Vampire bats landed everywhere. They bit through my wrists, my legs, my neck… every exposed piece of skin.
I was about to die, and all everyone could do was laugh.
Strong arms grabbed my shoulders and gave me a hard shake. “Snap out of it!”
I blinked. Behind the mass of bats feeding on my face was Raphael.
He dug his fingers into my muscles, causing me so much pain, some of the bats on my face vanished. “Whatever you saw was an illusion.”
“What?” I gasped out.
“Someone must have mesmerized you,” he said. “Did you look into anyone’s eyes recently?”
My teeth ground together. “Micalla’s.”
Raphael turned his gaze to one side and let out a sigh. It was an expression of helplessness, as though something prevented him from confronting the female vampire. If I wasn’t trembling so hard and if leathery wings weren’t slashing across my back, I might have wondered what hold Micalla had over the Stryx Brothers. But imaginary fangs pierced my lip, and all thoughts flew out of my head.
“Concentrate.” He cupped one side of my face.
“I-I can’t.”
He slammed his lips onto mine in a kiss so forceful, my eyes crossed. Raphael’s lips were firm, insistent, and he kissed me with the urgency of a man dying of hunger. My eyes rolled to the back of my head, and my knees gave way. He wrapped an arm around my back, holding me up, and kissed me until all traces of bats and fangs and leathery wings vanished, and it was just me and him and those demanding lips.
He drew back, leaving me panting and wanting more. A smile crossed his features. “Listen, I have to go. Stick with Commander Shanks. He’ll make sure you don’t get badly hurt. Meet me later, and I’ll show you some ways to avoid being caught out again.”
Warmth filled my chest. If Raphael’s instructions included more of those kisses, I wanted to learn everything he had to teach.
Chapter 10
I didn’t have any free periods for the rest of that day and couldn’t sneak away to meet Raphael with Commander Shanks still breathing down my neck. Raphael wasn’t at dinner, and only Nero sat at the middle table. Every so often, he glared in my direction, but when I raised my head, he turned away. I stared down at my food. What kind of game was he playing?
After dinner, I returned to my room to find Zarah’s bed missing and her wardrobe empty. I stared at the barren room. Two beds on the far left lay stripped down to their mattresses. A large gap gaped in the middle, and then my leg-less bed lay wedged against the far right. Even the layout of our room had been rearranged to reflect my shunning.
Because the Commander escorted me to my room and bolted my door himself, I couldn’t leave to speak to the onion woman about reversing what I had done to Dante’s face.
The next day, our first lesson was Protection, and Miss Margolyes stood in the front, clad in a summer dress that exposed her neck and arms. Unlike the usual classes where Commander Shanks loomed at the side of my desk to keep me in line, he stood outside at the teacher’s insistence.
“Vampires are very territorial beings, but your mate can’t personally watch over you day and night.”
I rested my chin on my hand and sighed. She always skipped over the most important consideration. What if a frumosi didn’t want to spend a lifetime the chew-toy, brood-mare, and blood-cow of a vampire? The life of a vampire consort she described sounded worse than being in prison.
She placed her hands on her hips, and her pleasant expression melted into a frown. “Not all vampires will respect your consort bond and may want to poach you. At times like this, it’s important to be able to ward them off.”
My spine straightened. Right now, I was shunned, but at some point, Dante would want revenge for what I did to his face, and the minor pranks would likely become major.
A thin boy who looked a year or two younger than us raised his hand. “Could you wear a necklace of garlic?”
The rest of the class giggled.
I slumped in my seat. That boy should have learned by now that vampires weren’t the cartoonish creatures depicted in the media. Movies had to give them weaknesses so that the hero could prevail. Without an army of hunters and their advanced weapons, real vampires were unkillable.
Miss Margolyes raised her hands, and the giggles died down. “The vampire sense of smell is more acute than a human’s, and anything overly pungent will be repellent until they find a way to counter it. In your scenario, a vampire would have a servant remove the garlic necklace or do it themselves.”
I raised my hand, but the teacher’s eyes skimmed over me. She spoke to another girl who asked a dumb question about throwing rice on the ground, so the vampire would be forced to count the grains. I rolled my eyes. Why was everyone joking around? It didn’t matter that we’d be assigned to a wealthy, handsome vampire. We would still be prisoners.
“Miss,” I said loud enough to make her jolt. “What happens to frumosi when they reach the end of their reproductive years?”
The class went silent.
She blinked. “What do you mean?”
“Menopause,” I replied. “A woman’s only got so many eggs, and she can’t pop out children forever. I’m not sure that a forever-young vampire female will want to have sex with an old man, even with dick pills.”
Her lips pursed. Probably because of my language, but I continued.
“In the real world, we’ll have spouses our age, children, retirement savings, and healthcare. What happens when we’re no longer of use to this territorial vampire? Do we become knockers?”
Grumbles spread throughout the room, and my chest swelled with triumph. I raised my chin and drew in deep breaths. If I could get enough of us thinking about the wrongness of our situation, some might want to plot an escape.
The door burst
open, and one of the guards shoved Gates into the classroom. Bruises covered half his face, and the arm of his school uniform looked as though it had been mauled. I clapped both hands over my mouth and gasped.
“Mr. Gately,” cried Miss Margolyes. “What have you done now?”
The guard at the door sneered. “Another failed escape attempt.”
Gates staggered through the room and took the only free seat, which was next to mine. He clenched both fists and flexed his jaw muscles. My stomach churned at his disheveled state. If someone as big and tough as Gates kept getting dragged back, then what luck did I have?
The teacher clapped her hands together. “Attention, everybody! You’ll have your opportunity to speak with Mr. Gately at lunchtime.”
She continued talking about useless ways to give an over-amorous vampire the brush off. I shook my head. Most included subtle word-play, designed to send the vampire a polite but witty refusal, such as ‘your passions overwhelm me.’ None of them would work on the usual nightclub creep, let alone a centuries-old creature thirsting for a human’s blood.
“Gates,” I whispered.
He stared into his desk, resting his forearms on the wood. His hands clenched and unclenched into fists, and his entire body trembled with murderous rage.
I leaned across and hissed, “Gates!”
He raised his head and snarled out of the corner of his mouth, “What?”
“I’m trying to escape, too.”
His brows rose. “How far did you get?”
“The kitchens.” Admitting that I hadn’t even left the building made me cringe. Even I knew my progress was utterly lame. Gates turned away, as though I wasn’t worth his time. I scooted my chair toward his and whispered, “They’ve got Commander Shanks guarding me because I burned off half a vampire’s face.”
For the first time, he met my gaze with curious brown eyes. “How?”
I leaned back and folded my arms. “You tell me how you left the building, and I’ll tell you how to hurt a bloodsucker.”
“Miss Stephens and Mr. Gately,” snapped Miss Margolyes. “If you can’t pay attention in class, I will recall your guardians.”
“Vampire guards.” I straightened and folded my arms across my chest.
She ignored me and continued giving the other frumosi ineffective tactics for warding off vampires. I glanced around. Only that young guy who had made the silly comment seemed to take notes. Everyone else listened with mild annoyance. Zarah slumped over her desk, looking half-asleep. I longed to ask if she was alright, but Miss Margolyes would call Commander Shanks, and I’d never get the chance to discuss escape plans with Gates.
When the gong sounded, Gates pulled himself up and turned to me. “We should work together.”
I nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking.”
“How did you burn that vampire?” he asked.
I raised my palm. “Magic.”
Right now, I wasn’t sure how much I could trust Gates. Zarah, who I had tried to protect, now languished in the bosom of a bunch of vampire girls who dressed her up like a doll. She didn’t even acknowledge my presence in frumosi-only classes, as though being a pariah was a contagious disease. Gates seemed more of a lone wolf and likely to sell me out if it meant his freedom, so I wouldn’t tell him about the sunstone or the onion woman until I was sure he would include me in his plans.
“Magic?” he folded his arms across his chest.
“I slapped him with the palm of my hand, and his face blistered. Everyone saw me do it.”
His brows lowered, but before he could speak, the vampire guard grabbed him by the shoulder and walked him out of the room.
Commander Shanks stood at the door with his hands on his hips. With an annoyed huff, I stuffed my books into my satchel and followed Gates out of the room.
As we walked side-by-side through the hallways, Gates muttered, “You weren’t lying about having a guard.”
“You might not want to sit at my table at lunch. What I did makes me an outcast.”
He grinned. “More like a bad-ass. I won’t be staying here long.”
I glanced over my shoulder at the two vampire guards shadowing us. “Me, neither.”
As soon as we stepped through the double doors of the dining hall, jeers filled the room, and vampires threw rotten food from trays held up by expressionless knockers. I hurried to my table, trying to keep my expression neutral. Over-ripe vegetables and rotten meat were a hundred times better than illusions of vampire bats.
“Do they do this to you every day?” Gates muttered at my side.
“This is your welcome party, I think. Unless someone wants to play a prank, I’m mostly invisible.”
“Bloodsucking bastards,” Gates snarled.
I settled in my seat, just as a beef tomato squelched into my hair. I shook off the soggy vegetable, which splatted onto the arm of my blazer then onto the floor. The vampires’ stupid pranks no longer mattered now that I had a potential ally. I turned to Gates and smiled, but he frowned at the vampire side of the dining room.
“What the fuck are they looking at?” he snarled.
“Who?” I asked.
“Those three bloodsucking dicks in the middle.”
Raphael, Nero, and Dante sat at their table, their cold, assessing eyes fixed on us. My stomach hardened, and I skipped my gaze over Dante’s scarred face and ducked the carcass of a roasted turkey. What were they planning now?
I leaned into Gates and whispered, “I burned the blond one’s face.”
He chuckled. “That explains the eye-fucking.”
“No, they’re glaring with hatred.”
He raised his broad shoulders. “Or eye-fanging. Either way, they want a piece of you.”
My insides cringed.
We sat at our lone table, and the knockers served us each a massive steak with a large baked potato and a mix of kidney beans, apricots, and creamed spinach. Next to it was a large glass of prune juice. I pursed my lips. They also placed a stack of buttered bread on the table, presumably to fill our bellies if this wasn’t enough food.
Gates reared back. “What the fuck?”
“Weren’t you at Nutrition class?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Can’t remember.”
“Every dish here either increases our blood count or makes it attractive to vampires.” I pointed out each item, making sure to push the creamed spinach to the edge of my plate. Then I explained which foods a person could eat to make vampires find their blood unpalatable.
Gates surveyed his meal and curled his lip at the absence of those foods, something I had done on my first day. Before I could tell him anything else, someone pulled out a chair.
Nathaniel, the tall vampire who had helped suppress Zarah’s grief, beamed. “Alicia, I’m so glad you have a friend to keep you company at mealtimes.”
I narrowed my eyes. Nathaniel had given me a surreptitious smile during my shunning, but why would he defy everyone and sit at my table?
He leaned forward and gazed into Gates’ eyes. “That’s some terrible bruising, and it looks like you need a new uniform. Can I take you to the infirmary?”
Gates shoveled a chunk of steak into his mouth. “Fuck off.”
Nathaniel’s mouth fell open, and his shoulders slumped. “I’m not trying to—”
“What do you want?” Gates spat.
I wrapped my arms around my middle and shrank into my seat. Nathaniel was a good guy for a vampire, and he had expressed an interest in Gates earlier in the term. I didn’t know my new friend’s orientation, but if he was anything like me, he wouldn’t get involved with a vampire.
In a small voice, Nathaniel said, “I only wanted to be friendly.”
“Stick your friendship up your ass and get the fuck off our table.”
Nathaniel’s lips pursed, and his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. With the slowest of movements, he stood and walked back to his solitary table.
I picked through my desert of apricot upside-
down cake and custard and glanced at the two guards standing six feet away to give us a semblance of privacy. If the Stryx Brothers could hear me talk about vampires from across the room, Commander Shanks and his colleague were probably listening to every word we exchanged for clues on how I managed to burn Dante’s face and how Gates escaped the academy building and evaded the vampires for so long.
Our next class was Hunters 101, the only one we shared with both male and female vampires. As everyone piled into the classroom, I walked to my usual seat at the back of the class and tested the chair for the usual pranks. Last time, some asshole had removed every screw in the chair’s frame, making the entire structure collapse. My tailbone ached in remembrance of that particular prank.
Raphael shoved past Gates and eased into the seat next to mine.
I froze and glanced at Gates, who narrowed his eyes before taking another seat in the next row.
Raphael stared up at me with those forest-green eyes and patted the seat next to mine. “I don’t bite…” A smirk crossed his handsome features. “At least not outside the bedroom.”
“Yeah, right,” I muttered.
“What are you waiting for? Sit, before Captain Tanar rushes over with his baton.”
Our black-haired teacher stood at the head of the class, glowering in our direction. Also shooting dirty looks from across the room at us were Nero and Dante.
I sat next to Raphael. “Why are you here?”
“Stay away from Paul Gately. He’s trouble.”
I pulled my chair back. I could understand why Raphael had ignored me for weeks. I’d hurt his brother, and I deserved his wrath. But that last time, when he had saved me from the imaginary vampire bats, I had hoped to see him again. I supposed the extended isolation had made me desperate for anyone’s company. But the lesson he had offered on how to protect myself from mesmerism didn’t materialize. Now, he only spoke to me because of my new association with Gates. If he believed he could dictate who I could and couldn’t befriend, he was more twisted than I thought.